vulvodynia after hysterectomy

Dear Lisa,

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad you found relief with these new meds.

Diana.

I have been reading with interest about vulvodynia. For the past month I have been experiencing some intermittent vaginal/vulva pain. Sometimes it feels like a pubic hair is stuck in my underwear or being pulled even though it's not. There are times it feels like the entire vulva is being squeezed. Other times I get a very deep pain inside the vagina. I have had 4 vaginal surgeries in the past 2 years and I think this is just nerve disruption but some of the symptoms lead me to suspect vulvodynia. Any thoughts?

Candyapplylady: To answer your question, vulvodynia mainly has to do with surface pain to the vulva and not pain deep inside the vagina. With vulvodynia, you often feel like you have a severe raging vaginitis/vulvitis that cannot be cured. I think that the deep pain comes from other nerves being disrupted. Sometimes, I have pain deep in my vagina and I think this is the result of a problem with my sacroiliaic nerves having been damaged due to the positioning I was in during my surgery. I am scheduled to begin to have them ablated at Johns Hopkins in 3 weeks. It took me forever and a day to get this diagnosis and I hope that it is the right one . But to get back to your question, think of vulvodynia as surface pain. However, it may still be nerve-generated. The etiology is unclear and nerve-pain medications often help. I know this is probably clear as mud. Good luck!

Let us know how your treatment goes with the ablation.