Here is how to keep your vagina happy in the new year.
First, it is important to understand that your estrogen pool dries up during menopause. Dry estrogen reserves = dry vagina.
Estrogen helps maintain the structure, elasticity, and moisture of your vagina, explaining why vaginal dryness strikes up to one-half of postmenopausal women. It makes sense that one-third of menopausal women suffer from pain during sex. After all, if things are itching, burning, or even bleeding down there, sex is going to feel anything but orgasmic!
But lacking estrogen reserves isn’t the only culprit behind an unhappy vagina. As women go through menopause, the unique mix of bacteria in the vagina changes and can contribute to vaginal dryness and pain. Other conditions such as endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, uterine fibroids, and even stress could be compounding menopausal women’s problems down there. Plus, anything that wrecks your sex drive can decrease vaginal lubrication and make sex painful.
With so many things going after your vagina, what’s a girl to do?
First and foremost, find a Menopause Specialist! These specialists are specifically trained in midlife conditions. Regardless of whether you are sexually active or not, it is important to treat this chronic condition. A Menopause Specialist is your best bet at having a happy, healthy, vagina again! If you don’t have one here are a few tips on how to find one:
- Check out my Menopause Specialist Directory. These specialists have been recommended by women who have found hormone happiness!
- Check out the North American Menopause Society for some assistance in finding healthcare professionals who specialize in perimenopause help. The licensed healthcare providers on the NAMS site have taken a competency examination. Those who pass have demonstrated their expertise in the field and are awarded the credential of NCMP or NAMS Certified Menopause Practitioner.
- The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) certified practitioners are experienced in functional medicine, which utilizes each patient’s environment, lifestyle, and genetic information to address health issues.
- Request a referral from a trusted health care provider.
- Ask your friends who have guided them to hormone (and vagina!) happiness.
- Ask your trusted pharmacist.
Vaginal atrophy is not something you should just endure. A bottle of lube can’t always smooth things over. So, please break open the conversation with your partner as chances are they could be personalizing the lack of physical intimacy.
With a simple examination, a Menopause Specialist can evaluate the source of your specific problems and give you an individualized protocol to follow that works best for your specific need. Download my free Menopause Symptoms Chart. Fill this chart out for at least two weeks and take it with you to your appointment. This will help you show your specialist how you’re feeling.
Treatments range from:
- Systemic Estrogen Therapy (oral tablet, patch, gel, spray, or injection)
- LET -local estrogen therapy (creams, tablets, or slow-release estradiol rings inserted into the vagina)
- Over-the-counter moisturizers
- Over the counter lubricants
- Or a combination of the above
If your Menopause Specialist refers you to a female pelvic medicine expert – do not worry. Pelvic floor issues can contribute to pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction. There are lots of options available to successfully treat these issues.
Listen to your vagina! Give your vagina the TLC it needs and deserves, and it will be happy, healthy, and pain-free.
Remember: Suffering in silence is OUT! Reaching out is IN.
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*EllenDolgen.com does not recommend, endorse or make any representation about any tests, studies, practices, procedures, treatments, services, opinions, healthcare providers, physicians, or medical institutions that may be mentioned or referenced.
