the-itchy-bitchy-spider:

frustratedwaffle:

shisno:

supercrooks:

We all know what erectile dysfunction is but literally no one is ever taught what vaginismus is and it can cause people to feel extremely lost, broken, and cause people to take their own lives.

Raise. Awareness.

For the uninformed, vaginismus is when the vagina painfully tightens and spasms when faced with pressure, usually from anything trying to insert into the vagina. It’s the reason I can’t wear tampons, and why many people can’t have vaginal sex without severe pain.

There’s not a lot of treatments, and there isn’t a single one that is for vaginismus exclusively – they’re all medications or treatments to treat symptoms, but not the causes. In fact, for a long time doctors waved off vaginismus as a purely psychological disorder in cis women.

Seriously, this is so unaddressed and uncared for in medical circles. Please spread awareness, even if all it’s for is to let those who have it but don’t have a name for it finally be able to understand what’s happening to their bodies.

I’ve never even heard of this??

TMI moment: after I got a horrible, really painful pelvic examination by a male doctor (who didn’t seem at all concerned with how I felt and just kind of unceremoniously followed the procedure of having a female nurse present while he did it when I said I wouldn’t be comfortable instead of taking any measures to try and make the procedure more comfortable for me), I asked the doctor if it was a concern that I couldn’t use tampons or penetrative devices including the examination device without significant pain, like if it was normal or if I needed to be aware of any medical concerns associated with the issue. And this motherfucker told me that maybe I should see a psychiatrist to fix problems in my sex life. As in, he knew nothing about my sex life but was immediately willing to assume and tell me that my vaginal discomfort was a symptom of me being crazy and uptight and needing therapy so I could have sex with men. The medical world is just rampant with sexism and an absolute disregard for the pain and the physical and psychological wellbeing of women. I felt so deeply hurt and violated by the exam he gave me I wanted to cry every time I thought about it for weeks after and he was so bad at what he was doing that I was in a lot of physical pain for hours after the procedure, which absolutely Should Not happen when you get a pelvic exam but he was literally just that mean and rough with my vagina while I was actually crying with pain and he showed zero regard for how badly he was hurting me. And guess what, a week later I got another pelvic exam (because he gave me a medication that didn’t work for me and didn’t list the side effects so I got really sick and then the initial issue got worse), this time from a female doctor, and when I told her she got an extra small device and was extra gentle and it didn’t hurt because she had like the most basic level of human empathy  and took the measures that existed to not hurt a woman in her care. But like, that’s the thing, the medical world is run largely by men and medical practitioners aren’t necessarily taught to have empathy for the feelings or even the overall health of women in their care, and in research levels too misogyny is hiding under the surface of the attitudes of much of the medical world. So it’s no wonder that issues related to vaginal and uterine reproductive health are never common knowledge and women’s sexual health is mainly seen even in medical circles as revolving around their ability to engage in sexual interaction with cis men.