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What Are The Ways To Prevent Dyspareunia & Does It Reoccur?

Criteria for penetration disorder include multiple episodes of pain, the anticipation of pain, and the tensing of the pelvis in response to attempted penetration.⁽¹⁾

To meet the criteria, the patient must experience the symptoms for at least 6 months and suffer “significant distress “.⁽¹⁾

What Are The Ways To Prevent Dyspareunia?

To prevent a symptom, it is necessary to know its causation. Many cases of dyspareunia are just during the first sexual intercourse and need not be treated and it will gradually go away. Dyspareunia is also a common symptom encountered after the menopause has reached. It occurs because there is a shrinking of ovaries and the functioning is almost over which leads to an increase in estrogen levels in the body. This hormone is responsible for providing lubrication to the vagina and reduces the friction between the penis and vagina. So, after this hormone gets low there is a decrease in lubrication of the mucous membrane of the vagina which leads to pain on coitus. It can be reduced by supplying estrogen hormones in the form of tablets to maintain its function and is a preventable cause of dyspareunia.⁽²⁾

Urinary tract infection is the third most common cause of dyspareunia and it is very easy to prevent it. Personal hygiene and cleanliness should be maintained because it only occurs when there is a viable atmosphere for the organisms to grow which is given by unhygienic practices. The person should take a bath daily and clean the private parts also.⁽³⁾

Also in the DSM 5 classification of psychiatric disorders, penetration disorder has been described as multiple episodes of either experiencing pain or anticipation of pain in response to an attempted act of coitus which may occur due to psychological fear or other factors such as child abuse, marital rape, etc. which may make a person more susceptible. In such cases, there is a requirement of proper counseling without creating an atmosphere of urgency because it will not only worsen the situation but also will make the patient try to recede more from the condition. A friendly atmosphere and understanding partner is required to earn the trust of the person and in this way, dyspareunia can be prevented.⁽⁴⁾

A few of the causes such as pelvic masses, endometriosis, cancer are non-preventable and has to be dealt with the mode of treatment. These are many times also responsible for the reoccurrence of the condition.

Does Dyspareunia Reoccur?

The reoccurrence of this condition is dependent upon the fact that underlying etiology is cured or not. If the cause is chronic and is not easily treatable such as pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, adenomyosis, ovarian cyst, cancer of the genitourinary tract, etc. which will progress throughout the lifetime and do not get easily cured would be responsible for the reoccurrence of the symptoms.

Conclusion

It is to be noted that dyspareunia is a preventable symptom in many cases because most of the commonly encountered etiologies are preventable with simple steps. It is not always necessary to treat a condition if it can be prevented. Like in the case of the first-time act of sexual intercourse there is a high chance of getting dyspareunia because of the less stretching ability of vagina and it can be prevented by doing adequate lubrication with artificial lubricating material. Personal hygiene and cleanliness are also important because they can help in preventing a variety of causative factors that are directly or indirectly responsible for dyspareunia.

Many at times it can be seen that the patient again complains of dyspareunia after it was cured. It occurs either due to new causative factors or due to flare-up of the already existing etiology.

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What Are The Ways To Prevent Dyspareunia & Does It Reoccur?