Insider: 7 Reasons Why Your Vagina May Feel Too Tight

7 reasons why your vagina may feel too tight, and what you can do about it

Treatment for a vagina that feels tight may include pelvic floor physical therapy, hormone replacement therapy, or estrogen cream.

A vagina that feels tight can make it painful to insert anything from a tampon to a penis. Childbirth, yeast infections, and STIs are common causes of a tight vagina. Other causes include medical conditions like vaginismus, endometriosis, and menopause.

There are many different reasons why your vagina may feel too tight, resulting in pain while inserting a tampon or during sex. In fact, an estimated 75% of women experience pain during intercourse at some point in their lives.

Here are seven reasons why your vagina may feel too tight and what to do about it.

1. Vaginismus

Vaginismus is a medical condition in which the pelvic floor muscles tighten involuntarily, usually in anticipation of vaginal penetration either during sex, before inserting a tampon, or during a pelvic exam.

Symptoms of vaginismus include:

• Sudden vaginal tightness
• A burning or stinging pain in the vagina
• Pain during sex, when inserting a tampon, or during a pelvic exam
• Muscle spasms in the vagina

Treatment for vaginismus can include a few different therapies, says Heather Jeffcoat, DPT, owner of Femina Physical Therapy. These include:

• Pelvic floor physical therapy. This involves exercises and stretches aimed at reducing tension in the pelvic floor muscles.
• Vaginal dilator therapy. The purpose of this therapy is to stretch the vagina with tube-shaped devices called vaginal dilators.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy. This form of therapy requires meeting with a licensed therapist who can help you understand your feelings of hesitation around sex and how that affects your thoughts and behaviors. Working through these feelings with a therapist may help your body relax and reduce symptoms of vaginismus.

4. Dyspareunia

Dyspareunia is a blanket term for painful intercourse, Jeffcoat says. Vaginismus is one type of dyspareunia. Others include:

• Vestibulodynia, which is pain at the opening of the vagina and not in the vaginal muscles like with vaginismus.
• Vulvodynia, which is chronic pain and irritation of the vulva.
• Vulvar vestibulitis, which is a type of vulvodynia that involves pain and redness surrounding the opening of the vagina.
• Treatment for the various types of dyspareunia depends on the cause. In some cases, an underlying medical condition, like endometriosis or pelvic inflammatory disease, can cause dyspareunia and treatment will involve addressing that underlying condition.

Other treatment options are similar to those used to treat vaginismus, Jeffcoat says, and can include pelvic floor physical therapy or vaginal dilator therapy.

For the full story about why your vagina may feel too tight, continue to the full article here.