How To Treat Vaginal Dryness
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Vaginal dryness can cause issues like daily discomfort and often pain with sexual activity. It can feel like burning, itching, discomfort, and soreness. Vaginal dryness can even cause bleeding with penetrative sexual activity, bladder urgency and frequency, and recurrent urinary tract infections or yeast infections.
Vaginal dryness is a common condition, and in this blog post, you’ll causes vaginal dryness and what you can do to treat it.
Causes of Vaginal Dryness
If you have vaginal dryness, it’s essential to determine why you have vaginal dryness and not just assume the reason. Get assessed by your medical provider first to determine what’s causing the dryness. Vaginal dryness is most common among those who are going through menopause and after menopause due to the decrease in estrogen levels in the body, which negatively impacts the vaginal tissues. These changes include the vaginal tissues becoming dry, thin, irritated, and less flexible. As you can imagine, and maybe you’re experiencing it yourself, this dryness often leads to painful sexual activity.
Other common reasons you may be having vaginal dryness include:
-Breast feeding
-Smoking
-Medications like antihistamines for allergies, birth control pills or hormonal birth control, and even some anti-depressant medications
-Medical conditions like diabetes and Sjogren’s Syndrome
-Cancer treatments, including pelvic radiation, surgery and chemotherapy
-And the tissues can dry out if you’re douching or using soaps and perfumes on the vagina
How to treat vaginal dryness
Your treatment will depend on what’s causing it. If it’s douching, stop douching. If it’s medication-related, talk with your medical provider about options.
Make sure you are staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water, and if you’re having pain with intercourse, make sure that you’re spending plenty of time with foreplay to help increase your arousal. Paying attention to foreplay helps with your natural moisture and lubrication.
Local vaginal estrogen in the form of a ring, insert, or cream can be prescribed by your medical provider, but not everyone is a candidate for using this. The estrogen cream will help rebuild, thicken, and plump the vaginal tissues, as well as help with moisture and lubrication. If you’ve gone through menopause, using vaginal estrogen can also help decrease your risk of urinary tract infections.
And finally, use moisturizers. These are recommended for most people because they don’t have hormones, and you don’t need a prescription to get them. Vaginal and vulvar moisturizing helps improve tissue quality by increasing moisture, decreasing the pH, improving the tissue health, and improving the elasticity in your vagina and vulva. These moisturizers are different from lubricants, which are used only during sexual activity. If you want more information about choosing a lubricant, read this blog post.
Moisturizers should be used 3-5 times per week, but if you have severe dryness, you may find that using them daily is best. It’s also recommended that moisturizers be used for at least 12 weeks to see results.
Moisturizer recommendations:
-Suppositories, which are solid capsules that you insert into the vagina, and they melt and are absorbed into the tissues. Three suppository moisturizers I like are Revaree and Key-E suppositories.
-External moisturizer creams or gels that you can use at the vulva and vaginal opening include V magic, Good Clean Love, Replens, and oils like vitamin E oil. Don’t use petroleum jelly or Vaseline as a moisturizer. It can irritate your vagina and vulva and can also increase your risk of getting a vaginal infection.
Additionally, be careful with oil-based moisturizers as they can break down and damage latex condoms and dental dams.
How do you use vaginal moisturizers?
I recommend using the moisturizers at nighttime so they won’t make a mess for you during the day from leaking out and so that they can be fully absorbed while you sleep.
For suppositories, it’s typically easiest to lie on your back or in a semi-reclined position in bed. Separate the labia, and you’ll either gently push the suppository into the vaginal opening or use the applicator that came with the product to insert it.
For moisturizers for the labia and vaginal opening, put a small amount of moisturizer on your finger, and then separate the labia as you gently massage the moisturizer into the vaginal opening and labia.
Although vaginal dryness is a common issue, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do something about it! Start with the tips in this blog post and check in with your medical provider to get relief.
