health is compromised. Many women with chronic vaginitis also have excessive yeast or unfriendly bacteria in their intestines, the result of an overwhelmed immune system that can’t rally to restore balance between friendly and unfriendly bacteria and yeast. With your Great Sex Detox, the cleanse outlined in Chapter 2 , you can recharge the health of your entire body and effectively eradicate vaginitis.
Facilitating Sex: Solutions for Vaginal Dryness and VAD
Vaginal dryness is one of the most disconcerting sexual-health challenges you may face. Most women experience it to one degree or another at some time in their lives. If you have vaginal dryness, there’s no mistaking the symptoms, especially if you experience it during sex; insufficient lubrication can be debilitating to your sex life. One woman graphically described the condition to me as “a sensation that my vaginal walls are lined with sandpaper.” Another summed it up as “feeling like I have dust bunnies in my vagina.” Solving vaginal dryness can be one of the most sex-enhancing steps you ever take.
If you experience vaginal dryness at any time in your life, you can benefit immeasurably by using natural lubricants as needed for sex. We’ll cover many of your options for sexual lubricants in detail later in this book.
When vaginal dryness is accompanied by the thinning of the tissue of the vulva and vagina known as atrophy , which often happens during midlife, the condition is referred to as vulvovaginal atrophy or vaginal atrophy and dryness (which we call VAD ). The name may sound clinical, but it describes an experience that for many women is all too real. VAD is a silent epidemic that affects millions of women, including up to 60 percent of those in their postmenopausal years.
Your vaginal and vulvar tissues naturally secrete sex-enhancing lubrication, and the secret to your secretions often lies in your estrogen level. VAD is caused by the natural reduction of estrogen throughout your body as you approach midlife; the tissues of your vulva and vagina are uniquely sensitive to this decrease because they’re estrogen-dependent. The drop in estrogen can decrease blood flow to these tissues, and lower their collagen content, and since collagen makes up your connective tissue, this means more tissue breakdown and atrophy. In addition to atrophy, the most noticeable effect of VAD is the reduction of your natural lubrication, and vulvar or vaginal pain that can last for months, or years.
If you have VAD, you may also experience vaginal irritation, itching, tenderness, urinary incontinence, and pain or bleeding during sex. Your symptoms can range from uncomfortable to excruciating, and sex may be out of the question. You may visit a number of gynecologists who prescribe topical steroid creams and vaginal anti-yeast creams—all to no avail. You may conclude that nothing can be done, and resolve to live with your symptoms.
Although both vaginal dryness and VAD are among the most common challenges women experience, VAD is one of the least recognized. There has been a tendency to downplay or ignore it in conventional medicine, which provides no clear explanation for why some women have the condition and some don’t. Since VAD often begins when a woman is in her 40s and continues into postmenopause, conventional doctors sometimes consider it just another unpleasant change that comes with the territory of midlife, a “minor” affliction requiring no special medical attention.
If untreated, VAD can lead to numerous other conditions, including vaginitis. Low estrogen in your vaginal tissues can make you more vulnerable to pH shifts and vaginal infections from unwanted bacteria and yeast. This happens because your vagina and urethra are lined with mucosa —the protective, moist outer barrier that lubricates your tissues and helps prevent vaginal infections from bacteria and yeast, as well as urinary tract infections. When the estrogen level in these tissues
Facilitating Sex: Solutions for Vaginal Dryness and VAD
Vaginal dryness is one of the most disconcerting sexual-health challenges you may face. Most women experience it to one degree or another at some time in their lives. If you have vaginal dryness, there’s no mistaking the symptoms, especially if you experience it during sex; insufficient lubrication can be debilitating to your sex life. One woman graphically described the condition to me as “a sensation that my vaginal walls are lined with sandpaper.” Another summed it up as “feeling like I have dust bunnies in my vagina.” Solving vaginal dryness can be one of the most sex-enhancing steps you ever take.
If you experience vaginal dryness at any time in your life, you can benefit immeasurably by using natural lubricants as needed for sex. We’ll cover many of your options for sexual lubricants in detail later in this book.
When vaginal dryness is accompanied by the thinning of the tissue of the vulva and vagina known as atrophy , which often happens during midlife, the condition is referred to as vulvovaginal atrophy or vaginal atrophy and dryness (which we call VAD ). The name may sound clinical, but it describes an experience that for many women is all too real. VAD is a silent epidemic that affects millions of women, including up to 60 percent of those in their postmenopausal years.
Your vaginal and vulvar tissues naturally secrete sex-enhancing lubrication, and the secret to your secretions often lies in your estrogen level. VAD is caused by the natural reduction of estrogen throughout your body as you approach midlife; the tissues of your vulva and vagina are uniquely sensitive to this decrease because they’re estrogen-dependent. The drop in estrogen can decrease blood flow to these tissues, and lower their collagen content, and since collagen makes up your connective tissue, this means more tissue breakdown and atrophy. In addition to atrophy, the most noticeable effect of VAD is the reduction of your natural lubrication, and vulvar or vaginal pain that can last for months, or years.
If you have VAD, you may also experience vaginal irritation, itching, tenderness, urinary incontinence, and pain or bleeding during sex. Your symptoms can range from uncomfortable to excruciating, and sex may be out of the question. You may visit a number of gynecologists who prescribe topical steroid creams and vaginal anti-yeast creams—all to no avail. You may conclude that nothing can be done, and resolve to live with your symptoms.
Although both vaginal dryness and VAD are among the most common challenges women experience, VAD is one of the least recognized. There has been a tendency to downplay or ignore it in conventional medicine, which provides no clear explanation for why some women have the condition and some don’t. Since VAD often begins when a woman is in her 40s and continues into postmenopause, conventional doctors sometimes consider it just another unpleasant change that comes with the territory of midlife, a “minor” affliction requiring no special medical attention.
If untreated, VAD can lead to numerous other conditions, including vaginitis. Low estrogen in your vaginal tissues can make you more vulnerable to pH shifts and vaginal infections from unwanted bacteria and yeast. This happens because your vagina and urethra are lined with mucosa —the protective, moist outer barrier that lubricates your tissues and helps prevent vaginal infections from bacteria and yeast, as well as urinary tract infections. When the estrogen level in these tissues
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