I have only felt well enough to have sex twice this yr and i had to prepair for it. I draw a bath with epson salts in the morning if I think i am feeling up to sex. This relaxes all my muscles. YOu might want to experiment with positions to find the best one for you because sometimes that matters about the pressure on the bladder. I drink lots of water after and make sure I go to the bathroom right away. Then I shower with him so that it's not so routien feeling. I have swabed myself with goldenseal just to be safe after. I will take a second bath or use a heating pad after my shower to keep the muscles relaxed. I usually put in a movie and then sunggle up with him and my pad so it keeps it nice. I have only been able to do this a few times though so I don't have much more to offer.

I experience a mild amount of pain with intercourse, but still encourage myself to participate. I do not plan sex however and I am wondering whether the planning and the worrying over doing it is not adding to your muscels becoming tight or increasing your anxiety hence increasing pain.I go on feeling when the time is right for me, eg am I feeling like I need more than the usual pleasuring that my husband and I do when I am not in the mood. If I am comfortable with going that step further than I initiate the sex and I find I suffer from only a small amount of irritation. The other question to ask is your husband supportive and not pressuring you into intercourse? Even a small amount of pressuring can make you become really tense.I guess the avenue that I am going down is, there may be alot more to the pain than IC it may be emotional. 1st step, try and not plan sex, snuggle up with your husband and have some fun and see where it takes you on your own terms, no one elses.

So this is pretty personal and alittle descriptive - I feel safe enough to share this with yall- hope its okay- - so if you don't want to know about my sexlife then don't read but I wanted to share it just as a reference to maybe say- this is what I am noticing in my own treatment and progress in this arena... I've been in treatment for 7.5 months. I can imagine your disappointment  Esalinas with being in treatment a year and still feeling that sex is painful! Maybe its one the last syntomns to leave and you just need some more time for that tissue to heal up for sex to be comfortable again? has there been any improvement or is it the same for you?The thought that it will linger for a long time really stresses me out for myself and for my husband. My sexuality was/is so devastated by IC/vuvladynia. Its slowly coming back but honestly the thought of sex is really anxiety inducing for me right now. Even though my bladder is better-and  my vuvldynia is too it's still there and still it sometimes just messes with my self esteem. I am trying not to identify with it knowing in my heart it is a temporary thing and will one day be gone. I have not tried to have coitus since the beginning of treatment. I flared so badly afterwards that I decided not to try to have sex until I thought I couldhandle it. whenever that happened. Its limbo for my husband who is really understanding.  It used to be for me since starting treatment that to bring on an orgasm could bring on a flare later- or in general create some swelling and discomfort.  Even though that happened I did it anyway just to bring some nerve messages of pleasure - like hey remember me! to that region- also some fresh blood to circulate. I noticed sometimes upon climax how the muscles in my pelvis that spasmed often felt as though they had been in tense mode for along time- they felt thick tight. so it would feel good but also kind of hurt- like the way a tight muscle or charlie horse can feel when contracting? As I have gotten better-the flaring with orgasm has stopped though I still get a little swelling and sensation afterwards  and I feel a varying degree of lessening of pain upon non coital penetration- though I don't really push it -its not totally gone- when it used to be simply touching the inside canal/outside of my yoni was superuncomfortable. My only conclusion is more time is needed but that it will happen. trusting that we won't plateau forever and really get to the destination is difficult but I would think after another year or even before that to truly go a bit deeper into healing is all you need. I think friction like coitus would still be too intense for me now and I am afraid to try again. I would be interested in hearing about at one point people who had vuvladynia experienced a normal sex life? Just to give some of us an idea how long we should be prepared to deal with this?

I had a great experience with PT which allowed me to regularly engage in intercoarse.  I wouldn't consider starting it until you have completed Matia's program or she feels it is the next step for you.   I still struggle with terrible bladder pain.  Every year or two, my VV symptoms reappear and I go back to the phsyical therpaist for a few trrreatments.