Article by our women’s health specialist
Many women experience what is called sexual dysfunctions at some point in their life, and at any age. Sexual problems affect 30% of young and middle-aged women and can sometimes goes up to 50% of older women.
But what is a sexual dysfunction exactly, what are the causes and how can we treat it? Here’s a little guide to help you self-diagnose sexual problems that physiotherapy can help with.
Sexual dysfunction: the definition
A sexual dysfunction is a vast range of sexual issues that women may encounter once or more in their life. It includes various conditions due to physical and sometimes even psychological causes.
The different types of sexual dysfunctions are:
- Pain with intercourse, also called dyspareunia or vaginismus
- Chronic pelvic pain or genito-pelvic pain disorder
- Vulvodynia
- Reduced sensations with intercourse
- Inability to achieve orgasm
- Inability to achieve penetration
- Persistent sensation of arousal
The causes and symptoms of sexual dysfunctions in women
Various reasons can lead to pain during intercourse, such as:
- Skin or nerve condition
- Infection
- Endometriosis
- Hormonal changes (menopause)
- Cancer and its treatments
- Prolapse
- Fear
- Lack of control on the pelvic floor muscles (involuntary spasm)
- Scar tissue
- Changes to the anatomy after childbirth
The inability to achieve orgasm during intercourse or urinary leakage can also happen following childbirth or surgery.
A few other symptoms can help diagnose sexual dysfunctions. If it’s impossible to achieve either penetration or orgasm during intercourse, or if you feel pain inside the vagina, around the vulva or around the pelvis, then you might suffer from sexual dysfunction.
It is important to note that sexual problems are not only entitled to vaginismus or pain during intercourse but can also be a loss of desire and lack of sexual sensation. Another symptom of sexual issues can be a persistent sensation of arousal.
The benefits of pelvic physiotherapy
Pelvic physiotherapy can assist with two things: reducing or relieving the pain (with or without intercourse) and empowering women to self-manage their issues, manually or with the help of tools. The aim of the different physiotherapy treatments is to make women be able to deal with their pain by themselves at home and in between sessions. This is why, besides educating them about their conditions and giving advices around managing their stress and anxiety, physiotherapists will also teach them various techniques to relax their pelvic floor muscles, as well as breathing, meditations, stretching and strengthening exercises.
First of all, the physiotherapist not only will assess the pelvic floor, its muscles and functional control, but will look as well at the pelvis, the hips and the spine in order to determine and program a treatment specifically tailored to the diagnosis.
According to what the physiotherapist will find, treatment might include: pain management advices, manual release of the pelvis internal and external muscles, self-exercises to contract and relax the pelvic floor muscles, nerve glinding techniques, stress and anxiety management and any other exercises/techniques that can help you self-manage your pelvic floor contractions.
For more information about Sexual Dysfunctions in women and their treatment, visit our webpage: Click here
If you have any questions or would like to book an appointment with a specialist at home or at the practice: 0207 125 0262
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