Earlier this summer I was invited to participate in a most amazing experience! This week I have spent 3 days scrubbing in and attending the counseling sessions for 3 young women who suffer from a condition called Vaginismus.
When a woman has never at any time been able to have pain-free intercourse due to muscle spasm, her condition is known as primary vaginismus. Some women with primary vaginismus are unable to wear tampons and/or complete pelvic exams. Many couples are unable to consummate their relationship due to primary vaginismus. Vaginismus can also develop later in life, even after many years of pleasurable intercourse. This type of condition, known as secondary vaginismus, is usually precipitated by a medical condition, traumatic event, childbirth, surgery, or life-change like menopause. (www.vaginismus.com)
I was invited to meet these three couples and “scrub in” for their surgeries. After putting on my scrubs, my booties and my hair net it was into the surgery center for case number 1. I made it not quite 10 minutes and all of the sudden it was pretty hot and I was feeling queasy! What?? I didn’t think I would have any problem at all but I had to leave the room for a few minutes. One of the other assistants asked if I had eaten? Of course not, I didn’t want to have any chance of being queasy (shows what I know!) After a few crackers and some Ginger Ale I was ready to try again and was successful for the next two surgeries, phew!
The reasoning for my attending these cases was to give me the first hand experience and user input to design a set of glass dilators for Vaginismus. But while that did happen, and we have some great ideas, what else happened was to me something that opened my eyes and touched my heart!
All three of these young couples had never had penetrative intercourse. They have all been to many other doctors and received different treatments and sometimes even surgery without a hope of a solution until they found Dr. Peter Pacik who specializes in Vaginismus treatment by using intravaginal injections of Botox together with progressive dilation under anesthesia.
Dr Peter and his staff are AMAZING! I watched him address the very obvious fears of one of his patients who would have just as soon gotten back on the airplane and flown half way around the world back home that very minute than move ahead with the procedure. He calmed her, reassured her and treated her. When I returned for the counseling session the next day, it was a very different young woman in front of me, she was calm, approachable and looking forward to the next steps of her treatment. When I ended my three days with this group of women today I could see the excitement in their faces that there was every possibility that he had solved their problem and they could now look forward to leading normal lives with their partners.
I have come home with ideas for products to help them with both dilation and therapy but more importantly with a great deal of respect for this doctor and his staff. They have found a way to give these women back control, sometimes for the first time, over their own bodies and allow them to have complete sexual relationships that they had all but given up on.
Just a little Disclaimer: I am not any sort of medical professional so anything said here is just my own words and observations after spending three days with the Dr., his staff and these three couples. I would also like to thank them for allowing me to participate in their procedures, it means more to me than they will know and truly opened my eyes to a problem I had never heard of and absolutely needs more attention focused on it. Dr. Peter Pacik is located in Manchester New Hampshire and has written a book called When Sex Seems Impossible Stories of Vaginismus & How You Can Achieve Intimacy
If you have questions or would like to buy Dr. Peter Paciks book please contact me at shellie@virtuallyabout.com. Soon it will be for sale on crystaldelights
