When Sex Hurts: Understanding and Healing Pelvic Pain

by Andrew Goldstein MD, Caroline Pukall PhD, Irwin Goldstein MD, Jill Krapf

Overview

For the 20 million people who suffer from pelvic pain: the completely revised and updated guide for making sex feel good again.
 
Pelvic pain can lead to embarrassment, silence, and misdiagnosis. It can hurt your relationship as well as your sense of self. Tackling the stereotypes, myths, and realities of pelvic pain, this easy‑to‑understand, accessible guide will help readers get the help they need and deserve, offering key information on:

• The most urgent questions about the causes of pelvic pain
• The more than twenty causes of pelvic pain
• How to find the right doctor
• The relationship between pelvic sex and genetics
• The newest in treatment for pelvic pain and pelvic pain indications
• How psychological factors can contribute to and reduce pelvic pain

Featuring groundbreaking research and stories from people who've lived it, When Sex Hurts provides the tools you need to stop hurting and start healing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306827419
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	154,681
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Andrew Goldstein, MD, is a national medical expert on sexual pain and dysfunction. He is the President-elect of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health and is on faculty at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He lives in Maryland.

Caroline Pukall, PhD, is a leading researcher of women's sexual function and dysfunction and an associate professor at Queen's University. Dr. Pukall has also been interviewed by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Bodies, Science VS), Best Health and InStyle magazines, the Globe and Mail  newspaper, Reuters, and The Atlantic. She lives in Ontario.

Jill Krapf, MD is a Board-Certified OB/GYN who specializes in female sexual pain, including vulvodynia, overactive pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, and vulvar lichen sclerosus. She earned her M.D. from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The George Washington University, serving as Chief Administrative Resident, and completed a Medical Education fellowship and subsequently earned a Masters in Education. She enjoys cross-stitch, barre, skiing, and traveling with her husband and three active children.

Irwin Goldstein, MD has been involved with sexual dysfunction research for nearly fifty years. Dr. Goldstein is Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital, Clinical Professor of Surgery at University of California at San Diego and Director of San Diego Sexual Medicine where he maintains his clinical practice.

Table of Contents

Foreword v

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction xi

Part 1 The Foundation

Chapter 1 Painful Sex 3

Chapter 2 Vulvar/Vaginal Anatomy 15

Chapter 3 Understanding Pain 28

Chapter 4 Doctor, Listen to Me 40

Chapter 5 What Does "Good Sex" Even Mean? 64

Chapter 6 Containing the Damage to Your Relationships 79

Part 2 Primary Causes

Chapter 7 When Every Touch Hurts: Provoked Vestibulodynia (Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome) 93

Chapter 8 Generalized Vulvodynia, Genitopelvic Dysesthesia, Pudendal Neuralgia 122

Chapter 9 Check In with Your Pelvic Floor 140

Chapter 10 Hormones 156

Chapter 11 Could It Be an Infection? 167

Chapter 12 Quelling the Inflammation 188

Part 3 Other Causes

Chapter 13 When It Hurts All Over: Chronic Pelvic Pain, Pelvic Congestion Syndrome, and Endometriosis 203

Chapter 14 Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome 215

Chapter 15 When the Pain Is Skin-Deep 225

Chapter 16 When the Pain Is Really Arousal: Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder 240

Chapter 17 Have You Checked Your Clitoris Lately? 254

Chapter 18 It's All in Your Stomach 259

Chapter 19 Delving into the Past: The Role of Trauma and Abuse in Genitopelvic Pain 266

Chapter 20 And Baby Makes Three: The Role of Childbirth in Sexual Pain 272

Chapter 21 Sex After Cancer 283

Part 4 When the Pain is Gone

Chapter 22 Rebuilding Your Life 295

Chapter 23 How Therapy Can Help 301

Chapter 24 The Future of Genitopelvic Pain Research 320

Appendix: Pain Journal 331

Resources 333

Notes 341

Index 367