by JANE E. BRODY
Millions of women experience vaginal discomfort, and sometimes crippling pain, for a variety of reasons, most often a loss of estrogen. The resulting vaginal dryness and atrophy can make sexual intercourse, a pelvic exam, urinating, or even sitting, walking or cycling a painful nightmare.
In addition to women near or past menopause, those affected include women who have recently given birth or are breast-feeding, women treated with estrogen-suppressing drugs for breast cancer or given chemotherapy or pelvic radiation for other cancers, and women whose ovaries were surgically removed.
With women now living more than a third of their lives past menopause and more and more surviving cancer, sexual problems linked to estrogen decline are increasingly common.
Yet, only about one-quarter of women with vaginal pain ever report the problem to a medical professional. And those who do speak up are often told — incorrectly — that nothing can be done and that they must learn to live with the pain.
Among the many patients treated by Dr. Deborah Coady, a New York gynecologist and author, with Nancy Fish, of “Healing Painful Sex,” are those told by other doctors that “It’s all in your head,” “You just need to relax,” “There must be something wrong in your relationship,” or “There’s nothing physically wrong with you.” One doctor even suggested that a patient tell her boyfriend to get another girlfriend.
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