Fuck Yeah, Gender Studies!

This is AKA The Chronicles of Poonarnia part one.
((AKA the lying, the itch and the hospital ward robe???) it doesn’t really fit my own symptoms or my experience, but it sounds darn neat…)

And so begins a new section of my increasingly large body of writing on vulval pain etc. in which i discuss my treatment. Elsewhere, if you’re interested, you can find discussions of how this condition (provoked localised vulvodynia, AKA vestibulodynia, previously known as vulvar vestibulitis) has impacted my personal and sexual life and  how i still have great sex.

Quick background:

The condition i suffer from, vestibulodynia, is a subtype of an umbrella of disorders that are lumped together under the term “vulvodynia”. This is actually pretty problematic and a big barrier to treatment development because with all the different presentations of the disorder… it’s just a mess.

Anyway, vestibulodynia is characterised by inflammation of the vestibule area of the vulva, at the entrance of the vagina (hence localised) that is extremely painful when touched (hence provoked). But some vestibulodynia sufferers can experience this sort of pain without any visible inflammation—which i believe is why the old term, vestibulitis, has become outmoded. 

I’ve written more about getting my diagnosis etc. here and here.

***

So Thursday was my latest trip to the gynaecologist. I’m being treated by the very kind, very articulate, very brilliant Dr Sonnex at the Department of Genito-Urinary Medicine and the SHAC clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, who is an expert on vulval disorders (he’s literally written the book on it). 

I had previously had a couple of appointments back in the summer of 2010 but then i moved away to do my MA and i had broken up with my douchebag boyfriend and decided not to get into a relationship with anyone for at least a year so it really wasn’t an immediate problem anyway (besides the tampon thing, but i’m too anxious about TSS to get on with them, anyway). So, after being out of treatment for well over a year, this was essentially another first appointment.

We had a quick chat about how penetration was just as painful as ever, etc., and what i’d been doing over the last year, and then i had my examination. 

Happily, no speculum was involved! (For my initial appointment he had to use one in order to check for any internal irregularities that might have been the cause of my symptoms. But no longer!) He did apply some pressure with cotton bud around the area to test the sensitivity—and i was surprised to realise that although the level of pain remained unchanged, the area of sensitivity seemed smaller. He, too, i think, was expecting more of the area to be painful. 

He also noted that there was less inflammation than before and also no tearing! I was particularly surprised by the latter point because i have been attempting penetration with some regularity. Then the good doctor took some swabs, which was of course uncomfortable, in order to check for STDs or any skin conditions that might be exacerbating things.

All the while we were chatting about my Master’s and unemployment (boo) and my eventual career goals, and my PhD plans came up. He asked whether my proposed topic would mean anything to him and i had great joy in saying “well, actually, yes—i plan to look at representations of ‘female sexual dysfunction’”, and i showed him the book i’m currently reading (The Science/Fiction of Sex by Annie Potts) and he asked to borrow it for a moment while the nurse was preparing the slides for the microscope.

Blablabla long story short:

No skin conditions. No STDs. No tearing. Less inflammation than before.
Resuming daily topical trimovate treatment. Review in six weeks.

He also thanked me for letting him look at the book and said it was probably too difficult for him—which i don’t think i’d agree with; it’s quite accessible, especially for a Gender Studies book!—and then his mispronounced Foucault. It was really quite adorable.
He thoroughly supports the idea, though, and recognises that research in this field is both scant and male-dominated. What a star. 

Oh, and in terms of a longer-term treatment plan, he said that there are other more potent topical treatments that we can try, as well as oral treatments (amitriptyline etc.) and sex therapy. I’m naturally dubious about the efficacy of psychosexual counselling as a treatment for a physiological problem—but we’ll see. I got the impression that maybe the psychologist on staff is bored of hearing about ED all the time or something!

All in all, i’d call it a very positive appointment. It’s frustrating that i don’t know the reason for the improvement in my symptoms—i haven’t had any treatment in over a year, after all—but i’m not complaining! I’m hoping that things will continue to improve.

Fingers crossed.