Women's Sexual Health • Manalapan, NJ
If you've been told to "just relax" you deserve better.
Pain with intimacy is not something you should simply push through. It can affect relationships, medical care, exercise, confidence, and how you feel in your own body.
Pain with penetration, tampon use, or pelvic exams can have several possible causes. Pelvic floor muscle tension or difficulty relaxing may be part of the problem, but hormonal changes, vulvodynia, endometriosis, scar tissue, skin conditions, infections, and other medical factors can also contribute.
Our job is not to assume the cause. Your evaluation helps determine whether the pelvic floor is involved and what type of treatment may be appropriate.
When pelvic floor dysfunction is contributing, treatment can address muscle tension, coordination, tissue mobility, breathing, and the nervous system’s response to pain.
The Root Cause
Why does this hurt?
Pain with intimacy, tampon use, or pelvic exams does not have one universal cause.
In some women, the pelvic floor muscles remain tense or tighten in anticipation of penetration. In others, hormonal changes, childbirth injuries, scar tissue, endometriosis, vulvodynia, previous painful experiences, or other medical conditions may contribute.
Pain can also lead the body to anticipate discomfort and tighten before contact occurs. Over time, this protective response may become part of the pain cycle.
Your evaluation is designed to determine which factors may be relevant to you.
Pelvic floor muscle tension
Pelvic floor muscles that have difficulty relaxing may contribute to pain with penetration, tampon use, or pelvic exams.
Hormonal and tissue changes
Changes during postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause can affect lubrication and vulvovaginal tissue and may contribute to discomfort.
Childbirth and postpartum changes
Tearing, episiotomy, scar tissue, and changes in pelvic floor function after childbirth may contribute to pain for some women.
Surgical and scar related changes
Scar tissue and changes in tissue mobility after pelvic or abdominal surgery may contribute to pain or muscle guarding.
Pain sensitization
When pain happens repeatedly, the nervous system can become more sensitive and the body may begin anticipating discomfort. Treatment may include gradually retraining this response alongside addressing physical contributors.
Vulvodynia, vaginismus, and endometriosis
These conditions may occur alongside pelvic floor dysfunction. Pelvic floor therapy can address contributing muscle, movement, and pain related factors while medical conditions continue to be managed by the appropriate medical provider.
How We Help
Treatment based on what we find.
Your treatment plan is based on your evaluation. Not every woman needs the same treatment, and not every form of pelvic pain should be treated the same way.
Keep the treatment categories beneath this section, but remove statements suggesting that one specific factor is definitely “driving” the pain.