Susanne, a lovely 47 year old working mom, presented in my clinic and asked me if I had ever heard of an angry vagina. She went on to say that she and her vagina were both angry and she’d had enough. She told me she had a vibrant sex life in her twenties and thirties, but more recently had the unfortunate circumstance of requiring chemotherapy for breast cancer. It was at this time that sex became extremely painful and her sexual desire plummeted.
As if her sexual desire wasn’t already low (due to peri-menopause) this made things worse. Despite her wanting to enhance her sexual desire, the business of being a mom to three young children and working outside of the home prevented her from addressing her sexual health issues of what she thought was exclusively, low sexual desire.
Susanne had noticed an ad for a new, novel and natural sexual desire enhancement gel and she was excited to use this because she thought it would be a quick fix to her low desire. However, there was one important aspect of her sexual health issues that she was missing: vaginal dryness. Vaginal dryness is a significant contributing factor to low sexual desire. After all, who wants to do anything that is painful? But Susanne had not connected the two issues. Who would when you’re juggling so much in your life?
Vaginal dryness is very common in women and may begin as early as age 31. You may think that 31 is too young to be experiencing vaginal dryness but it isn’t according to the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Vaginal dryness is also associated with the oral contraceptive pill as well as breastfeeding. More commonly, it occurs in peri-menopause, as in Susanne’s case. Susanne realized during our discussion that that her vaginal dryness began after chemotherapy treatment, another common cause of vaginal dryness.
I explained to Susanne that as a sexpert, I was all for her addressing her low sexual desire as that may negatively impact her health and relationship and may also affect her confidence and mood. That said, in order for her to address her low sexual desire, I recommended that she first address her vaginal dryness. Since hormone therapy was contraindicated for Susanne (due to her estrogen dominant breast cancer) and because she had no other symptoms aside from vaginal dryness, I recommended that she take RepaGyn® (hormone free) vaginal suppositories to assist her in getting relief from her vaginal dryness.
By first addressing her vaginal dryness, I am confident that Susanne and her vagina will be happier and will be able to get back to the bedroom, which is always a good thing!
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