[YEA]  04/21/2010: Julie from San Diego, California, United States: "This post will be a little long just because I have a lot to explain. The disease vulvodynia has affected me for about 2 years, ever since I was 16. I have gone through many ups and downs with this disease, my psychological health was extremely affected. All tests came up as negative with my doctors, and I did so much research and would only end up in tears or have a panic attack because of the overwhelming amount of women who have not found a cure for this awful problem-- all the suffering and the idea of this 'death sentence' drove me closer and closer to insanity. Doctors and even my own mother thought it was all in my head. Wrong. I have always been into natural cures, and was disappointed again to see the lack of hope for a cure on Earth Clinic (Not Earth Clinic's fault!). By chance I just happened to be looking at the coconut oil section and saw that one woman was able to cure her chronic, 21 yr old struggle with an 'incurable' bladder condition by ingesting coconut oil. A light bulb went off in my head. Well, this condition, I assumed, was what many women suffer from called interstitial cystitis (IC) that is extremely similar to vulvodynia, only it affects the bladder not the vagina. So between these two conditions, you are walking around feeling like you have a bladder or yeast infection, but the results come up negative so any infection is generally ruled out leaving the symptoms to remain with no end in sight. That's the connection I saw between the two. Some women have both IC and vulvodynia... I can't even imagine. There ARE women who have cured interstitial cystitis on Earth Clinic. The majority of them seem to think there is an undetectable infection and anti fungal/bacterial measures helped their situation. I caught on and thought well, it couldn't hurt to try some of these remedies just in case I myself have an undetectable infection. So I've been ingesting coconut oil everyday for about two weeks... at least 1 tsp a day. Sometimes I go all the way up to 2 tbsps it really varies... I tried not to get my hopes up but guess what-- this is the first time I've been pain free in 2 years. I'm reeeeally gonna try and not get too excited as things could change but for these two weeks I've been fine... coincidence? I hope not. I will definitely update! Ladies, your health is in your own hands. Remain optimistic and be creative. I took a cure I saw helped one woman for a completely different but curiously similar disease, and I think it's helped me. Don't give up! I'm only 18 and too young to have to suffer from this. Please, please do not settle to be a prisoner in your own body."

06/06/2011: Ana Mua from Tamuning, Gu: "There is a cure on the Vulvodynia page that didn't get categorized in the menu bar. (Colloidial oatmeal. ) Wouldn't want it to be overlooked! Thanks for everything, EC team!"

03/07/2012: Meg from Columbus, Oh, Usa: "So I had vulvodynia (I have Interstitial Cystitis) and I thought it was yeast because I suspected that was what was causing my IC issues. I went to my MD Kinesiologist and he found that I had the herpes virus attacking my sacral nerves, causing me genital burining and itching. My doc tested me for remedies and put me on a homeopathic series and freeze dried garlic, which have helped. I also had him check olive leaf extract and chaparral, which are known to combat the herpes virus. I was just wondering if anyone else had luck with olive leaf or chaparral in killing the herpes virus."

01/24/2012: Gianna from San Diego, Ca: "This post will be long and as detailed as possible because like myself, I am sure many woman want ALL the advice they can get for this mysterious condition. I want to tell about the moment I began to feel the pain, the in between, and how I went back in time and really analyzed myself and my past leading up to this.

In July of 2011, I began to notice the pain. As the months progressed it became worse. Most of my life I have been susceptible to Yeast Infections and Bacterial Infections. They were so common that I didn't even need to go to the Doctor to get them diagnosed anymore. I would just call in and they would send the prescription to my Pharmacy. Well, I thought I had one or the other multiple times during the past 6 months, but the medication never seemed make the pain go away or make me feel better like it had always done in the past. The symptoms were still there. Urinating was painful and I often thought I had a UTI. But I have had UTI's before and this didn't feel exactly the same. Urinating was just painful, burning, irritating; I never really cramped up like I had all the times I actually had a UTI. And sex was just PAINFUL. I had a boyfriend at the time and I never wanted to have sex because of the pain, but many times I would just suck it up and endure the pain because I did not feel comfortable talking to him about my ailment and I didn't want him to suspect anything else or feel like things were weird. At first it was only painful when he inserted himself and then pulled out. It burned. Maybe I wasn't aroused enough, but after a while I realized that wasn't the case because I could tell that I was. After a while the pain was with each stroke, and it would get worse and worse. Because I was anticipating the pain, during intercourse I would tense up the hold time. I could never relax. I would just close my eyes and hope that it would be over soon. Till this day I am upset that I didn't speak up and let him know the pain I was feeling because the more I think about it and the more research I do on Vulvodynia, I realize that my tense muscles "down there" during intercourse may have been the cause of this. There are so many accusations and "possible" reasons why women get Vulvodynia, all of which I will not list because I am sure you already know them, but for me, I think I found my answer as to how I got it.

I was diagnosed with Vulvodynia in early December 2011. Like many women, I became depressed and felt helpless. I mean, when your Doctor tells you that there is no known cure and that they do not know what causes it, you become hopeless. I began to do research EVERYDAY, trying to find ways to cure this and get rid of it. The thought of not being able to have sex again or have a "normal" relationship (Normal in the sense of a healthy sexual relationship with someone) made me even more depressed, but I knew I had to do something. I found a few articles and blogs where women talked about their Vulvodynia and how they controlled it, had it for years, or still have it and can't get rid of it.

Then I came across Earth Clinic and had some glimmer of hope. After reading a few of the posts on Earth Clinic, I decided to try some of them out. I tried the Coconut Oil. That did not work for me, BUT I now take the coconut oil capsules because they have other benefits. It just did nothing for me down there. I started taking Calcium Citrate plus Magnesium plus Vitamin D3 (all in one capsule). I also began taking Cranberry Supplements (this helps with the bladder muscles – it helped to relax me which has eased the pain a bit). I also take Probiotics to help regulate the flora in my body. I tried to be on a Low Oxalate Diet, which was SO HARD, but I tried it. I was willing to do whatever it takes. Overall, I was feeling a little better, but it still was not helping.

After trying all of this, I had sex for the first time a month after being diagnosed. The pain was still there, but I told myself to keep relaxing, don't tense up, try not to think about it, etc. But we all know that is easier said than done. Sex was still painful. I decided to do more research and realized I never fully tried some of the exercises people were talking about. I began to look into Pelvic Floor Muscle exercises and Perineum Massage. I started to realize that during sex I would tense up a lot. My partner liked to put me in positions that weren't really comfortable for me and I would tense up because it would hurt sometimes. With some positions I thought that was normal because it wasn't a burning pain, just a pain many women say they have when they are in certain positions, an uncomfortable pain. But it was uncomfortable the whole time. Well one of the possible causes of Vulvodynia is Sexual Abuse. Now, I was never sexually abused nor am I trying to compare my situation to a sexual abuse victim, but I am saying that tensing up and "bracing yourself" you might say, have some similarities. Could I have possibly traumatized my muscles? Did the penetration make me have nerve damage due to tensing up during intercourse? Sex with my partner wasn't that painful UNLESS he put me in positions that I was uncomfortable in (I am not flexible, so he would put my legs and hips in positions my body was not use to which in turn tensed me up). I began to really think about it and thought, maybe my Vulvodynia is caused by my tense muscles and overtime I have traumatized them.

I read one post about a woman who did a Perineum Massage where she would insert her thumb into her vagina and push on her perineum as hard as she could for 30-45 seconds. I began to do this every day, 4-5 times a day. At first it was painful, it burned, it felt uncomfortable and I thought I would not be able to tolerate it. But the key is to relax your muscles while you do this. The first few days it will be painful and hurt, but after a while, you will begin to feel better and the pain will minimize, if not just minimize but actually go away completely. I also began doing the Pigeon Pose stretch to help open my hips. Another stretch I do daily is lay on my back with my feet on the ground and knees up. I then open my legs and let them fall to the side, keeping feet together. You will feel a tremendous stretch in your groin. It has been 3 weeks and I feel 95% better. I do not have the burning or itching sensation that I had those previous 6 months. I could sit at my desk and work without having pain. I can pee without the burning sensation. I have taken up Yoga as well, to help me relax. I feel that has something to do with it too. Relaxation is key. I was stressed out and when you stress, your muscles feel it. For me, the supplements and the Perineum Massage have helped. I have not had sex yet, that's why I say I feel 95%, so I am not sure if this has been my total cure, but I definitely notice a difference in my day to day. I feel normal again.

Just to clarify, this is what I have done to try and curb my Vulvodynia (which seems to have worked) and I do all of this DAILY:

[YEA]  05/20/2010: Anna from Las Vegas, Nv, Usa: "Vulvodynia Remedy: Pelvic Floor Muscles Stretch

Simple vulvodynia remedy/solution/cure (that worked for me) I'm so excited to have finally solved my problem that I need to share it with all of you, because I, like you, suffered SO VERY MUCH and I was so desperate for a solution! Unfortunately there are too many wrong, confusing, even dangerous suggestions online about crazy or expensive treatments, like surgeries, anti-depressants, oxalate diet, etc., when the solution is so simple, yet it eludes everybody. I am proof that vulvodynia can be treated very naturally, easily and FREE at home. If my story can help somebody, at least my pain has had a purpose. I had vulvodynia for almost a year, so bad I couldn't wear underwear/pants, sit down or go by bicycle. [As if it wasn't enough, months after it all began I ALSO started experiencing what I can only explain as urethral spasms (those are actually worse than the vulvodynia pain, because they always came unexpected). I thought there was something wrong w/ my urethra, I even went to a urologist who couldn't understand what I had and didn't find anything wrong w/ me but nonetheless gave me antibiotics which turned out to be totally useless & unnecessary because, as my gyno confirmed, I didn't have whatever strange invisible infection the urologist thought I had. Brilliant!] Anyway, after lots of research online, I realized it was possible that vulvodynia could simply be a muscle problem, so I finally went to a pelvic floor therapist, who confirmed lots of things to me. She did some manual trigger point therapy (which you can do yourself), but mostly what I got out of my experience with her was hope that it could be treated, which was the most important thing to me as the pain was driving me insane. Therapy helped a lot, but as I am unemployed I couldn't afford more sessions. Well, at least I knew for sure it was a muscle problem and nothing else, as I had already experienced a major improvement thanks to her. See, the reason that doctors can run millions of tests on all of you and find nothing wrong/related to the pain is because vulvodynia is simply caused by the SHORTENING of your pelvic muscles due to the trauma of, say, an infection, accident, bad posture, bad habits, scoliosis, or even just stress...you name the cause, you're probably right. Those poor, stressed muscles have contracted to the point of causing internal chronic spasms (whether you feel them or not), which tug at your nerves, thus giving you pain! The secret to reverse it, then, it's simply to LENGHTEN the muscles back to their original shape, by stretching them. I, by the way, requested a fantastic book from the library ("Heal Pelvic Pain" by Amy Stein) which explains all of this in detail. You should look into it, too, if you are looking for more info about how numerous pelvic disorders are simply caused by the shortening of the muscles & by trigger points (she explains how to do trigger point therapy -which I love- on yourself, however I found that the stretch I "invented" was enough to make the trigger points go away on their own!). One of her most useful pieces of advice was the part about "dropping the pelvis": until I read her book I never thought/realized how super tense my pelvis always was. Catch yourself anytime and you'll see that if you have vulvodynia your pelvis is all tensed up, drop it! (It's the same feeling as when you have finally reached a bathroom after holding it in for a long time.) Make a conscious effort to drop it/relax it/let go of it as often as possible until it will become normal to you again. (To better understand what I'm talking about, see her book.) I did the long routine of stretching exercises (for different parts of the body) that Amy recommends however I felt none of them were really specific enough to solve the problem, or at least I wasn't feeling any difference fast enough (I'm kinda impatient)...so, as I am unemployed and I have a lot of time on my hands, I started mulling over where the problem was specifically arising from...I thought: it's not my back, or my butt, or my thighs,... my urethral spasms & vulvodynia pain MUST stem from the front of my pelvis (the area below my navel). Well, then! Those are the muscles I have to lengthen! So I created my own (easy) specific stretch exercise, which amazingly accomplished the job very quickly! I felt immediately better the first morning (I had no more urethral spasms! What a miracle!). After 2 days I was already MUCH better, and after a week my vulvodynia was virtually all gone! The longer you do it, the better. It's something you can do as a tune-up once in a while, too. THE SOLUTION: This is done in bed for as long as possible while you read or watch a movie (you'll know when you've had enough), you can get up once in a while if you really need to move around. (I guess you could try it on a table too, I used the bed as it's more comfortable and you can stay there longer.) On the VERY EDGE(<-important!) of the bed, without falling, put as many pillows as possible under your pelvis (it depends on how high your bed is, mine is pretty low), make sure you have some support for your back, too, if necessary, in order to be as comfortable as possible (you'll figure it all out on your own), but the important thing is that your pelvis needs to be a little HIGHER than your back TO CREATE AN ARCH! Then, let your legs hang from the edge of the bed, creating as much of a backward arch --between your thighs & your pelvis-- as possible. Simply lie there and feel the muscles of your pelvis and lower abdomen S-T-R-E-T-C-H. It's very easy. I even extended alternately my legs for further stretch of the pelvis, one leg at the time as much as possible. I did all of this while reading, so it's no big deal, it actually feels good. (I have a tile floor so I used a towel under my feet to made the sliding easier). This is all folks! Let me know if it works for you. If not, get Amy's book and try her stretches, maybe the muscles that you need to lengthen are not the same as mine. It depends on where your pain is, I guess. FURTHER ADVICE: #1 Months ago, when my pain was the worst, I noticed that the only thing that cut my pain in half was drinking a whole stalk of celery juice. Within hours it gave me so much relief! It might be for the same reason that celery is good for rheumatism (I don't have it), I'm not sure why it worked, all I know is that celery juice surely was a huge help! And it went to prove that my vulvodynia had nothing to do with too much oxalates, as celery is high in oxalates! If you strongly believe that your vulvodynia is caused by oxalates (very unlikely from what I've read) I highly recommend that before embarking on such a restricted, crazy diet at least you bother to get a test to confirm whether your oxalates are off, most likely you'll see that everything is normal! #2 As my therapist and Amy Stein say, do NOT do kegel or similar strengthening exercises until the pain goes away first! The problem is that exercises such as kegel actually tend to further contract/shorten the muscles which, in the case of vulvodynia, are already too tensed up to begin with! The exact OPPOSITE needs to be done, instead: RELAX them! #3 Do NOT constantly touch/mess with the area that bothers you! As my therapist said: if you keep on pressing on a bruise, you are preventing it from healing! #4 Also, as much as possible, try NOT to think about it, I know it's really hard, but you need to rewire your brain so that you DON'T constantly EXPECT pain from that area! Otherwise you're keeping the pain alive through a self-fulfilling prophesy."

[YEA]  01/03/2012: Reecee84 from Acworth, Georgia: "Hi I have had my own trouble with Vulvodynia and I wanted to post my success with it since there is so little information about it.

Once I realized that what was going on down there wasn't a yeast infection I started to do research, I had no discharge, just redness, swelling. For the most part I only felt pain and itching when I touched down there. Dynia means pain. Doctors don't know what it is and they don't know how to treat it, even prescribing antidepressants for it when that isn't going to help at all.

Ok now for what you came for: What I found through my research is that trauma to the muscles of my hoo hah caused my vulvodynia. This was caused by forcing the aha moment by locking up all my muscles during my uh alone time if you will. One thing that I have tried is a cranberry supplement, mine is the once a day one that can be bought at the Mart we all know of.

According to my research a UTI infection affects the same or similar muscles or something that Vulvodynia does, so I take a cranberry supplement every day because that helps so much with UTI's. I also take a calcium citrate supplement to help with oxalates, you can also get it from the Mart and the one I get includes Vitamin D and Magnesium for better absorption, it's a name brand.

I also have Bacterial Vaginosis so I take extra amounts of Folic Acid and an Acidopholus supplement every day and extra if I feel the itch start. This has been the only thing that has worked for my BV and it works very well. Funny how doctors don't think vitamins and immune boosters will fix the body's problems.

The coconut oil didn't work for me. But what has made the most significant difference and has for the most part cured my Vulvodynia has been the pelvic floor stretches that I do. If muscles are traumatized in some way they stay tensed and contracted, just like they would if you were in a car accident, so they must be relaxed and this is accomplished through stretching. The one that has worked best for me is a perineum massage where I take the thumb of my dominant hand and press it against the bottom of my hoo hah towards my rear hole as hard as I can without hurting myself but so I can feel the strings or muscles down there pull and stretch. I count slowly to 30 or 45 and release. I do this every time I go to the bathroom or at least 3 times a day when it hurts, which for me only seems to occur after sex now. After sex and the next day of doing this along with some other stretches and I can totally avoid any discomfort I also do a stretch where I lay on my back, the soles of my feet pressed together with my toes up against something solid so the heels of my feet are as close to my butt as possible. I then let my knees fall to the sides and hold this position for as long as is comfortable. This stretches the top or front muscles of my hoo hah. Another is piling pillows under my butt while letting my legs dangle off the bed as another person suggested. I try to do this for at least 15 minutes at a time to get a really good stretch. This stretches similar muscles as the previous exercise. This isn't as easy to get out of and makes my back hurt some so I don't do this unless I'm hurting. I have started putting ankle weights on to assist in extra pull. I don't recommend starting out doing this. Adding more pillows should be gradual as well. One thing that has also helped me is masturbation, believe it or not. My little friend doesn't penetrate me. One thing I do differently now is I make sure the soles of my feet are touching just like the exercise I mentioned above except I'm on a bed, and I don't force the aha moment. Doing this pulls the muscles in a different way and for me seems to relax them. One more exercise I do is called the pigeon pose, I feel it stretches the pelvic floor from different angles and helps some. My Vulvodynia has gotten so much better doing these stretches that I now only have to do it after sex and if I'm feeling any discomfort, which I really don't. It is such a relief cause I was going out of my mind. I hope this helps somebody. The info I found was sparse on this topic so I want to be as detailed as possible which is why this post is so long. One thing I recommend is people look up pelvic floor STRETCHES online to find more exercises. DO NOT do the exercises that make you clench your pelvic floor muscles this will only make the pain worse! It must be a stretch. You can slowly add those other exercises, also called kegel exercises once the pain is gone, but not till then. It may take some time but I found ones that work for me and didn't have to pay for lots of doctors that don't work and have no clue. I think having a regular stretching or yoga program will keep those muscles more supple in general, along with a regular exercise program.

One final thing: I have found that reducing the amount of sugar in my diet helps immensely with how often I get yeast infections and the general health of my lady parts. Also becoming gluten free has helped immensely as well.

If anyone has questions email me at cbscientist(at)gmail.com"

12/03/2011: Sapphire from Ny: "Hello-

I have been diagnosed with vestibular volvitis, which is causing painful intercourse. I've tried many different creams and other prescription meds, to no avail. I was recently told about four physical therapy practices in the NY area that specialize in treating this condition via:

-visceral manipulation

-trigger point release

-myfascial release

-biofeedback.

Has anyone had any experience with any of these techniques... And most important, have you had success with them?"

04/08/2011: Jessica from Trona, Ca replies: "Vulvodynia can be a sign of fibromyalgia and this site has an awesome amount of info on fibromyalgia. I have FM and have had vulvodynia... not fun."

09/13/2011: Bb from Mackay, Qld Australia replies: "Thank you Anna and everyone else who has contributed to this topic. I have been battling with vulvodynia/ vestibulitis for almost a year. I have spent almost every day researching a cure on the internet only to be dissapointed with sad story after sad story. I just want to say THANK YOU for your POSITIVE story! I knew there had to be women out there that are getting better or have completely recovered and now I have found them! I have already tried several creams and a dozen doctors with no luck, and I am now ready to try a different path by changing my diet and trying these pelvic exercises. I am a 26yo American expat living in remote Queensland and it is hard to find the same holistic resources as there are back home in New England. I am trying the alkaline diet now. This may be my problem because my diet has been heavily acidic. I am an emotional wreck, honestly, but I will save you all the sob story because it is probably the same as what you hear from most sufferers. Anyways, I just wanted you ladies to know that people like me read these blogs, put them in my favorites and keep looking at them when I feel like hope is gone. Health and happiness to you all. And hopefully some luck for me soon too, right! ;) BB"

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