20/20 - Jezebel

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Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
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HadwinEleius
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Vulvar Vestibulitis or vulvodynia. There are also related problems like interstitial cystis.Check out the National Vulvodynia Association.
http://www.nva.org/whatIsVulvodynia.html
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izzynomad
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
oh. my. god. I HAD THIS. While I was on the pill. Went to 3 doctors who told me the pill does NOT cause dryness or painful sex, that it must be psychological & I should see a therapist & "just use some lube." I quit the pill anyway 4 years ago, and the pain went away immediately and I'm never taking pills again!!!
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The Queen of No
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Is it just me or did they not name what it's called? They didn't even say "vulvodynia" or "vaginismus" once. Yay, vague.
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Jezebabe
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
I had some severe pain that went misdiagnosed for over a year until I was diagnosed with a fairly large but benign cyst that was growing beside my urethra and pushing against my bladder. It had to be surgically removed under general anaesthesia, with an incision that required four stitches to close. I'm still pissed about all the bitchy Gynecologists who dismissed my symptoms, didn't believe I was a virgin at the time, told me I had to go on BC because "you people like to have lots of kids", and said I'd probably permanently damaged my reproductive system by some phantom STD. Ugh.
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FuriousSterling
08/06/09

@Jezebabe: "you people like to have lots of kids" JESUS CHRIST What the hell?!
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Jezebabe
08/06/09

@FuriousSterling: I'm Hispanic, I think that solves the riddle here.
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alexa
08/06/09

@Jezebabe: OH, so it was racism AND misogyny. Awesome. Did she throw in a comment about how you were probably Catholic, too?
I just reminded myself of monty python:
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SarahHeartburn
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
A friend of mine had years of horrible vaginal pain during sex (it didn't help that her BF was an asshole)but she finally found a doctor who had seen similar cases; a malformation in the vaginal wall, kind of a pulled ligament (a bad analogy, but it's complicated to explain.). Minor surgery cured the problem, and she ditched the jerky BF as well.
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Kittydentata
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Please. My aunt had horrible pain for YEARS and was told by several (male) docs that it was all in her head/she should get psychiatric assistance. Turned out that her old OB/Gyn had neglected to remove an IUD, which had grown into the wall of her uterus. It hadn't shown up on on scans because it was hidden by her pelvic bone -- fortunately she didn't have to get a hysterectomy, but it was a close call.
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CollegeCamel
08/06/09

@Kittydentata: How did she forget that she had an IUD?
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Kittydentata
08/06/09

@CollegeCamel: She didn't forget. Her doctor was supposed to have swapped out the old IUD before putting in a new one, but he apparently got absentminded and only did half the job. At some point she had the new one removed -- that doc did not see the old one and my aunt had no idea it was still in place.
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Lymed
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Many chronic pain patients face this problem. If a patient seems otherwise healthy, or if the patient's other symptoms are invisible like the pain, then doctors who don't understand will often go to a psychological rather than physiological explanation. The fact that chronic pain can cause depression doesn't help the matter.
It is a woman's issue because women feel more pain than men.
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CollegeCamel
08/06/09

@Lymed: There's an episode of Scrubs about this! I don't think they ever figure out what it is though...
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Cimorene
08/06/09

@Lymed: My doctors keep telling me my migraines are caused by my depression. But I've been having trouble with language when I talk (switching words around all the time and stuff, which I never used to do), and the other day I thought I saw a big black ball when I was walking my dog and jumped around it to avoid it. My boyfriend was like, "Um, what was that?" So now apparently I'm having hallucinations. I'm kind of worried that this is more than depression. But my neurologist (who didn't look at my CAT scan images) told me that headaches are the number one symptom of depression in women. Now I'm medicated and not depressed, but the migraines haven't gone away.
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stacyinbean
08/06/09

@Cimorene: Wow, that's scary! See if you can find a migraine specialist around you, I had awful migraines in college and was fortunate that one day the on call at my school was actually a migraine specialist (I'm sure there is a better name for it), but he said neurologists are often looking for things to blame instead of doing the real work to find out what's wrong.
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Cimorene
08/06/09

@stacyinbean: I went to a neurologist center, they have a whole "headache center" and do research on headaches. But my doctor just asked me a few basic questions, doubled my antidepressant dosage, and that was it. If I hadn't started seeing things lately, I wouldn't have worried about it, but...
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Little Green Frog (Wise Latina)
08/06/09

@Lymed: EXACTLY. Fibromyalgia suffererer here. Can't even get my husband to believe I'm in pain sometimes.
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KittyKittyCat
08/06/09

@Cimorene: I sent you a private message, because I had similar symptoms for years and I finally got help. Don't let your doctors dismiss such serious symptoms.
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Edited by KittyKittyCat at 08/06/09 4:25 PM KittyKittyCat was starred KittyKittyCat was unstarred

Hunter_Suicide
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Is this about vulvodynia? It's seriously insane that doctors are JUST NOW figuring this shit out.
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metalkate
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
i had a mysterious pain condition and went through a lot of hoops... finally got put on a drug called Neurontin. the drug pretty much eliminated the pain, but i stayed on it for over a year... eventually i had a positive lifestyle change to a much more active, fun work environment and felt that i might be over the pain condition. and, lucky me, i was, and have never had a relapse. sooo... try Neurontin, peeps.
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thesciencegirl
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
At my med school, we had some lectures by a sexual health expert who was super-knowledgable about physical and psychological causes of painful sex, and who taught us all about the different stages of orgasm -- which we were tested on (best lectures ever); it is a good idea to see someone who specializes in sexual health if your OB/Gyn is not able to adequately address your concerns.
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OctaviaCrassus
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Seachange, have you tried a Urogynecologist? I think the catch-all for this kind of pain is interstitial cystitis. There's a lot of info out there about different medicines (not necessarily prescription) that help. For instance, some women get great relief from taking anti-allergy pills at night. I suffer from this as well, though not nearly as bad as others out there. Sometimes after I have a real UTI, the bladder, urethral and perineal pain linger, even though the actual infection is gone. It blows, hardcore.
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
This hits really close to home. I always had intense pain during sex-- the only way to describe it as though someone was tearing me in half from the inside out. I was constantly being told that it was in my head, I just needed more foreplay or lubrication. I had one boyfriend tell me it was normal and it would go away. Another told me that it was because I was abnormally shaped. I finally got a referral to get physical therapy (which by the way took months to find someone who didn't have insane, inconvenient hours and then took a few more months because there was a long waiting list). It turns out my pelvic muscles are really tight because of someone weirdness with my hip and lower back and I can't tell you what a relief it was when I told the therapist lubrication didn't do anything for me and she said, "yeah, I wouldn't think it would for you."
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Edited by Sputnik_Sweetheart at 08/06/09 1:21 PM Sputnik_Sweetheart was starred

Eleanor Ramilly
08/06/09

@Sputnik_Sweetheart: Did the doctor help you alleviate some of the pain or is it something you still suffer?
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
08/06/09

@Eleanor Ramilly: It is a work in progress. We are working on strengthening my hip and back muscles to help relieve the strain on my pelvic floor and working on relaxing the pelvic muscles. I do feel some difference, but I'm not quite there yet.
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Maritsa
08/06/09

@Sputnik_Sweetheart: My docs (at Washington Hospital, if you're in DC) did biofeedback during the PT. It really was amazingly effective.
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MIXED
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
I find it increasingly hard to accept the vast discrepancy in health care received by men and women for gender-specific issues. If a man was experiencing excruciating pain in his penis from sex, or WALKING, you bet your ass some doctor would be all over that shit with tests and cures. I am currently reading "It's My Ovaries, Stupid!" by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., and she makes this exact point but in relation to hormones: if a man's testosterone level suddenly dropped drastically so that his sex organs weren't working properly and his quality of life decreased, a doctor would immediately be looking for ways to correct the problem. But the common problem of women's hormone levels dropping before menopause causing terrible symptoms including depression, hair loss, loss of sleep, lack of sex drive, etc etc etc...doctor's often completely dismiss the problem as psychiatric/neurotic. WTF?
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WashingMyHair
08/06/09

@MIXED: I also like Elizabeth Lee Vleit. Understanding my hormones has helped me and my health. On the other hand, my enlightenment didn't do much for those around me who don't care to understand. Bastards!
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Edited by WashingMyHair at 08/06/09 1:25 PM WashingMyHair was starred WashingMyHair was unstarred

NefariousNewt
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
Botox, for pelvic muscles?
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gabrielsong
08/06/09

In reply to Woman's Extreme Vaginal Pain Misdiagnosed By 15 Doctors
The problem usually is the vapors, right?
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dichotomy
08/06/09

@gabrielsong: Nope. Feminism.
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andBegorrah
08/06/09

@dichotomy: The common prescribed treatment is a meat injection.
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dichotomy
08/06/09

@andBegorrah: Right, and if that causes pain, then you're obvs man-hating lesbian who doesn't shave her legs!
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