Most women who have had vaginal sex with men have been in pain during intercourse, according to a survey of university students.
at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and her colleagues wanted to understand the factors that are linked to women experiencing pain during vaginal sex. They therefore surveyed 277 of the university鈥檚 students, who were all women aged between 18 and 33, on their experiences.
Overall, 80 per cent of the respondents reported feeling pain during heterosexual vaginal sex at least some of the time, with 15 per cent experiencing this more than half the time.
Advertisement
Among those who felt pain, 42 per cent said they kept having sex anyway all or most of the time and 41 per cent didn鈥檛 tell their partners. When asked why, the women reported not wanting to 鈥渄isrupt the moment鈥�, hurt their partner鈥檚 feelings or create an embarrassing situation.
鈥淚 think there are lots of expectations on both sides, but if good communication is established, couples can explore a lot of ways to experience intimacy that are not painful,鈥� says Oesterling.
Pain during sex was linked to low sexual self-esteem, defined as how the women perceived themselves during intercourse, including their attractiveness and confidence.
It was also linked to low sexual agency 鈥� 鈥渢he ability to identify, communicate, and negotiate one鈥檚 sexual needs, and to initiate behaviours that allow for the satisfaction of those needs鈥� 鈥� and having a narrow definition of heterosexual sex as just being vaginal.
While some of the women had conditions such as vaginismus, when the vagina suddenly tightens when something is inserted into it, most reported experiencing pain due to sex lasting too long or being too frequent, a lack of arousal or lubrication and the penis entering too deeply.
The researchers didn鈥檛 ask when the women felt this pain, such as whether it was during their first sexual experience or if they feel it when having non-vaginal sex or with someone other than a man.
at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio says many women who experience pain during sex wrongly blame themselves.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not nearly enough education about how female sexual anatomy works, and if there was some basic education around that, I think it could really help women and their partners communicate better about sexuality,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 think it would make women feel more assertive about expressing their needs and their preferences, as they would understand them better.鈥�
medRxiv
