6 Ways You Can Achieve Amazing Results with PelvicSense - if you are suffering from painful sex.
Oct 30, 2022
Marina (name changed for confidentiality) is a recently married, busy student in her mid-twenties. Marina experienced "extreme pain" at the vaginal opening during intimacy, rating it 8/10 and causing her to avoid and lose interest in sex.
She's aware of being highly anxious and noticed a growing strain on her marriage because of her fear of intimacy. She worried that this could cause irreversible damage to her relationship if she didn't address this issue. Her supportive husband expressed concern about causing further harm to his wife and encouraged her to see her medical doctor.
She consulted with her gynecologist, who found no major underlying medical cause for her symptoms and referred her practice PelvicSense at home as Marina stated she didn't have access to a pelvic PT center or there was a long waiting list to see a pelvic PT.
Marina started PelvicSense, an online pelvic healing home program designed by a master clinician of pelvic physical therapy. Marina learned about pain science, understood why she felt pain, plus implemented self-care techniques to lower her fear of penetration.
She filled out a questionnaire and followed the program for around 20 minutes three days a week and in around 3 months, she returned to pain-free intercourse. Her Pelvic Pain Questionnaire results improved from 50% impaired to 2% impaired.
How did Marina achieve great results?
1. Retraining her hyper-vigilant nervous system and brain.
The brain's role is to protect the body and will send pain if it receives too many signals of danger from the nervous system. The nervous system needs to be retrained to 'see" a function (ie vaginal penetration) from one that's dangerous to one that's natural and safe.
She learned about pain science, implemented sleep hygiene, stress management techniques and incorporated physical activity into her weekly routine.
2. Awareness of types of thoughts and emotions.
Our thoughts and emotions can contribute to the pain experience. For people in chronic pain, fear spreads, or in other words- "generalizes." Fear of doing an activity that now hurts can activate your body's stress response, increasing pain signals to the body.
3. Slowing the spread of fear through positive thoughts and emotions.
Marina was educated on positive self-talk and given a download that had over 50 positive affirmations to choose from. She learned that her expectations regarding sexual intercourse can influence how she experiences pain.
4. Desensitizing pelvic floor muscles via self-manual techniques.
Marina's pelvic floor muscles were gently stretched and mobilized by using her hand and also started on dilators. Her body learned that stretching tissues was not dangerous but instead safe. Marina was taught to maintain her progress using personal dilators at home.
5. Involvement of an intimate partner.
Although the body never forgets a past memory, the nervous system is 'plastic' or teachable to unlearn faulty patterns. The nervous system and brain can inhibit a bad memory by creating new neural pathways to respond to intimacy as safe. With this in mind, Marina taught her husband how to stretch her pelvic floor muscles with her personal dilators. This allowed Marina’s nervous system to rediscover her husband's touch as non-threatening and safe.
6. Movement.
Exercise can help desensitize the overused pain loop, like being in a hamster wheel. Marina was diligent about performing her movement program.
Marina progressed through her journey in about 3 months due to her diligence with her home exercise routine, high level of mental focus, and her personal decision to make her recovery a priority.
For those with chronic pain, recovery can take several months; regardless of the length of your journey, PelvicSense is here to help. If these symptoms sound familiar, please reach out to begin your journey to recovery.
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