This site is intended for healthcare professionals

CPD
CPD
Pro
Pro
account_circleSign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Go to /pro/cpd-dashboard page

This page is worth 0.05 CPD credits. CPD dashboard

Go to /account/subscription-details page

This page is worth 0.05 CPD credits. Upgrade to Pro

Diagnosis

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

diagnosis

Differentiating superficial dyspareunia and vaginismus from clinical presentation is a challenging task.

A carefully constructed medical and psycho-sexual history is necessary to make a diagnosis of vaginismus.

  • some of the questions which can be enquired from the patient include:
    • is she in a relationship?
    • is she sexually active with her partner?
    • is penetration possible? if so, is it painful?
    • is it painful only at penetration?
    • how anxious does she feel at the thought of penetration?
    • can she insert tampons or fingers?
    • how long has this been a problem?
    • how anxious does she feel about the thought of a genital examination?
    • has she ever had a traumatic sexual experience?
  • obtain a clear description of the pain, fear, and avoidance responses
  • for psychological assessment find out about sexual knowledge and family attitudes to sexual behaviour
  • find out about the ability to tolerate genital exploration by herself or another
  • exclude other causes for sexual pain e.g. - herpes virus, lichen sclerosis, vulvodynia etc

Genital examination may be necessary to exclude organic pathology (1).

Reference:

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.