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Gynaecological conditions
Itching, soreness, and burning make penetration painful and make anticipating sex unpleasant, and the cycle of recurrence produces its own anxiety. The catch is that most people who self-treat repeatedly are treating something else — bacterial vaginosis, a skin condition, or sensitised nerves — which is why the recurrence is the signal to get a diagnosis rather than to buy more treatment.
See someone about this if
Editorial categories, not percentages, and never a prediction about you. Each links to the fuller picture of that change.
Burning, tearing, or aching pain with penetration. Pain is never a symptom to work around with a product — it is the one entry on this list that always deserves assessment.
Wanting sex less often, or losing the spontaneous interest that used to arrive on its own. This is the effect people most often assume is psychological and most often is not only psychological.
Less natural lubrication, a tight or raw feeling, or discomfort that arrives during rather than before sex. Medicines cause this either by drying mucous membranes generally or by lowering oestrogen.
Condition or treatment?
Frequent recurrence is worth linking to the rest of the picture: poorly controlled diabetes, high-sugar and glycerin-containing lubricants, and antibiotic courses all feed it. Contraception is listed here because a change in hormonal method sometimes changes the pattern.
For almost every condition on this site, the condition and the medicines that treat it both affect sex — by different mechanisms, on different timescales, and with different answers. Being able to say which half you are asking about is the single most useful thing you can bring to an appointment, and it is the thing patients are least often given.
Never stop, pause, reduce, or change a prescribed medicine because of anything on this page. Some of the medicines listed here are dangerous to stop suddenly, and the condition being treated does not pause while you experiment. Everything here exists to make your next conversation with a prescriber more specific — not to replace it.
Matters more if: sensitive or irritation-prone.
Itching, soreness, and burning make penetration painful and make anticipating sex unpleasant, and the cycle of recurrence produces its own anxiety. The catch is that most people who self-treat repeatedly are treating something else — bacterial vaginosis, a skin condition, or sensitised nerves — which is why the recurrence is the signal to get a diagnosis rather than to buy more treatment.
The effects reported most often are pain during penetration. Reported does not mean inevitable — the picture varies a great deal between people, and most people have more than one thing contributing at once.
Frequent recurrence is worth linking to the rest of the picture: poorly controlled diabetes, high-sugar and glycerin-containing lubricants, and antibiotic courses all feed it. Contraception is listed here because a change in hormonal method sometimes changes the pattern. Timing is the most useful clue you have: an effect that appeared within weeks of starting or changing a treatment points at the treatment, while one that predates it points at the condition. Never stop, pause, or change a prescribed treatment to find out — take the timeline to the person who prescribed it.
The classes commonly used here that carry documented sexual effects are combined hormonal contraception. Each has its own profile, so which one you are on matters — and that is a prescribing conversation, never a reason to stop anything.
Choose a glycerin-free, sugar-free lubricant — glycerin and other fermentable sugars feed candida. Stop washes, douches, and fragranced products; disrupting the local balance is what allows recurrence. Get a swab before treating again if it keeps coming back — repeat self-treatment is the main reason misdiagnosis persists.
Sooner than most people do, and specifically without waiting: Symptoms that have not resolved after treatment need a swab rather than another course.
Educational information about what a diagnosed condition tends to do — not a diagnosis, not a way to work out whether you have something, and not advice about your treatment. Conditions on this page overlap, and most people with a long-term condition have more than one thing affecting them at once. Nothing here can examine you or run a test. Pain, bleeding, or a new and unexplained symptom always deserves assessment.