Hey people. Before we get started, I wanted to make sure you knew that this was episode two of two with Dr. Becky Lynn, who is a gynecologist specializing in women's sexual health and menopause. This one, we're going to talk about vaginismis, endometriosis, breast cancer, and resources for women who've been treated for living with breast cancer, and then advice for women how to talk to their doctor about their sexual health needs.

So go back to last week if you want to hear about the first part, which is all about hormones, myths about hormones, how we got to where we are in America with our fear and

kind of scarcity around providing hormones for women.

And then come back today or stay here and then go back later if you didn't listen to the first one.

All right. Thanks for joining. Welcome to You Are Not Broken, the only podcast that combines science, medicine, and psychology, to re-educate your brain and help you live your best-to-love life.

And I'm your host, Ford Certified Female Urologist, Dr. Casperson.

So going into more pain conditions with sex,

can you talk about vaginismis?

Yes.

So vaginismis is more of a lay term, but it means that you cannot allow penetration. You can

allow a penis in the vagina, a vibrator or dilator in the vagina without pain. And what it implies

is pelvic floor muscle spasm. So that, so basically the pelvic floor is the layer of muscles

that prevent everything from falling out when you stand up. So the uterus, the bladder, the rectum,

it's this hammock of muscle. So like the way that I like to describe it is if you think of a skeleton,

you think of the pelvic bones, right? There's a hole in the

bottom, so that way a baby can fit out. But your uterus and your bladder don't fall out that

hole also because there's a hammock of muscles that everything rests on. That's your pelvic floor.

The vagina has to traverse those muscles. The rectum has to traverse those muscles to get to the outside.

So there's a variety of reasons women will develop pelvic floor muscle spasm and hence

fed genus and many times it has to do with pain for whatever reason. So endometriosis is a common

one. People have pelvic pain with menstrual cycles or pelvic pain all the time. Your body's

response to pain is to contract those muscles and they stay contracted. And then they surround the

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