Hello Menopause Mavens!
I pop in now and again to get support from you amazing people and it always help. I am wondering if i have VA and whether to ask my Doc for Shensio when i see her later this month? Or whether it is something else.
This is a bit of a saga but here goes.
After first trying HRT several years ago i stopped as i didn't feel any better/ Migraines were awful etc. and then i tried again last October( 2022)
I had been on HRT ( Evorel 50 mg, Utrogeston and Testim gel) for about 7 months, felt okish Migraines a bit better but started to get heavy bleeding and have been advised by GP to come off. Since stopping all that about 2 months ago , there has been no bleeding , some migraines but not too bad and the only thing that still really bugs me my inability to have sex, its so painful. The same for smear tests - but this has largely always been the case.
The reason i question if its VA is that it doesn't hurt at any other time. Some of the descriptions i have read describe more or less constant pain, pain sitting down, pain weeing etc and UTI feelings. But ( touching wood here) I don't get any of that , its just when something is put inside me, so no to any gels, pessaries, tampons, fingers, speculum, vibrators - any of that has me crying in such pain.
I had a hysteroscopy this week to check that the bleeding wasn't anything to worry about ( hadn't bled for 7 years) and they struggled to find my cervix - quote - 'this might explain why smears have always been so bad' they just about found my uterus - I was suckling on gas and air like a piglet on a teat at this point, and could confirm my womb lining was only 2.6mm so within safe limits. So i need to decide what can help me able to have sex with my husband.
The consultant suggested trying a dilator but how do i get over the pain? Has anyone here used dilators to help with VA. Have I always had VA and not known? Or do i not have VA at all ? - lots of questions but I am feeling a bit lost
i haven't felt too bad emotionally, even managed to come off the Anti Depressants last November - with a few emotional days but not too bad. ANYWAY- having read in Davinas book and some threads on here about VA - I don't recognise the things described. If i have had this since i was 13 and trying Tampons I used to be able to have sex with my husband with a lot of lubricant and a lot of patience and it wasn't too bad, but I am 53 and don't think i have every had pain free sex yet . I just used to be able to bear it for the pleasure i could get eventually. But i don't want to give up!
Does anyone else recognise these symptoms? Is it VA? And are dilators and the feared pain, my only hope?
thanks for any help you can give and sorry for the really long waffle
cheers
M