Will sex always hurt?

[Flowerpot23]

Hi everyone.

I've experience pain with intercourse for the past 2 and a half years ... Had my second lap to remove endo back in June and was hoping that would take away the pain during sex as well as my pelvic pain. My pelvic pain has reduced significantly but it's still painful to have sex. Will it ever not hurt?

Any advice is greatly appreciated x

[Impatient]

The likelyhood is yes it will always hurt, sometimes surgery can provide temporary relief enough to allow vaginal sex for getting pregnant - but as a lot of the sex pain can come from adhesions when you have endo -there is no permanent cure for them as they always regrow even after being cut right back in a surgery and each surgery encourages more of them to grow too.

Pain from cervical erosion can be helped by stopping periods and giving the inflamed and irritated cervix a decent time to recover without any more blood passing through it. Surgery can help too with this but again - the long term risk is even more scarring and adhesions.

Quite honestly if sex gets too uncomfy then don't have vaginal sex - so many other was to explore having fun and intimacy that don't hurt you. Provided you and your partner are willing to explore the other avenues then no reason why you can't still have an active and satisfying sex life. It will just have be a little unconventional from normal.

Other options to try before you give up - are changing sex positions to see if you two can find less painful positions and still maintain having vaginal penetration.

Use the search box on the green bar and type in sex pain - as the topic crops up so often there are hundred of previous posts with ideas from other members on how they get round this issue.

It affects so many endo ladies and not everyone is happy to explore alternative options - but they are there if you and your partner are still wanting to remain intimate.

[Petunias]

Hi Flowerpot - are you confident that you had your surgery performed by an excision specialist and that he removed all the endo? Sex is no longer painful for me but if it were I'd be considering what else could be going on. Off the top of my head adenomyosis, interstitial cystitis and pelvic floor dysfunction might be worth looking into. Please don't resign yourself to a life of painful sex - the likelihood is that there is something causing it that can be rectified. Good luck xx

[Flowerpot23 in reply to Petunias]

Thank you for your replies I'm seeing my consultant on Friday so will speak to him about possible other causes xx