CAUTION- THIS IS TMI!!! my story

lately i've experienced a horrible problem with vaginal dryness. i thought it was just when i was having sex that i wasn't getting wet and the lubricant i did produce was thin, but i've noticed that i'm always dry. i really noticed it today when i put in a tampon and it hurt like hell. i had to use lube to put it in, and it still hurt like hell.

i thought about how i take meds and this problem has really started since i started taking Risperdal, which makes me lactate, and now new mothers have trouble wtih vaginal dryness. i thought that maybe, maybe my body's high prolactin is causing not only the lactation but the vaginal dryness too.

i bought some replense, some suppository stuff that i thought was only for menopausal women (but turns out to be for new mothers, people on meds, all kinds of people). i used it just now and my goddess, what a relief! i never realized how much pain i was in until i used this stuff, and the burning is gone. i don'tknow if it will improve my sex life at all, since the natural lubricant i make is still thin and my interest is scanty at best, but maybe it won't be painful anymore.

this is a whole new world. i was in such pain.

i also bought some "insteads". they're plastic things that look like rings with a concave part in the center, and they're an alternative form of feminine hygene. they don't absorb like tampons, they just catch. you put them up right against the cervix so they catch right there and you don't feel they're there. i picked these so they don't suck up the moisture.

thank you, thank you, thank you for replense and insteads! i feel like a new woman! now if only my natural lubricant and interest would come back, we'd be in business...still, i wouldn't trade risperdal for that.

have you experienced vaginal dryiness due to meds? how did you deal with it? any new ideas? i'm game!

loon

BTW- a quick google on it shows that risperdal does cause vaginal dryness- moderate to severe! ouch!

If you like the idea of non-absorbent menstrual protection but would prefer a reusable product, The Keeper (rubber) and the DivaCup (silicone) are both available from natural product stores across North America. Tampons are evil (and usually bleached and just not something I want inside my body). The various cups are far healthier alternatives, whatever one's reason for trying them.

I don't know if my serious dryness is from my titties up thyroid, the fact that I'm like, 46 and perimenopausal or medicinally induced...but it is miserable as all hell. I've never heard of Replense, but as soon as my sweetie gets home, were going out and finding some hopefully.

I know how sucky it is to have painful dry sex, I often bleed afterwards...hope that this will help all of us. Loon, can't they give you some kind of counter hormone to treat the high prolactin problems...seems like they have a patch for every thing these days

gosh, Panz, that's terrible... the bleeding after sex. Every drug store should have lubricants intended for sex. K-Y jelly has been around forever. It comes in a tube and should be by the condoms....there are other brands that work better, like astroglide or wet, but K-Y is the old-fashioned one thet every store should have.

You and your boyfriend need to pick some up at the drug store! No need to be suffering so! Just slather some on the boyfriend and on you too. Feel better, hon.

I found a way to avoid the allergy meds cuz they dry me out. Ah, deep breathing.

definatly ranks amoung the really sucky side effects!! Birth control makes it worse if you have been on it for more than a few years. My gyno said that bc thins your uterus lining and decreases discharge. When you add that to meds that have dryness as a side effect, it just magnifies the effect and no amount of water drinking will turn the desert into a pond!! I am finally on a med combo that is working and I feel human so messing with those wasn't an option. The topamax/ birth control/pregnancy risk thing was driving me paranoid, plus the dryness was making me so miserable I wanted to scream. I knew I had to change something! Last week, I had the mirena iud put in and I notice a difference in the dryness already and it has only been 5 days! Of all the meds, bc was the only one that I could change. Now the pregnancy paranoia is gone, the wetness is coming back, the crazymeds are intact, I can get the iud out and get pregnant whenever I choose cos it isn't permenant, and it is one less pill in my body. This might not be right for you, but it was a life saver for me. Lookinto it Loon!!!

mitten,
i'm wondering whether or not the implanon (a single capsule inserted in your arm) would also cause the dryness or if it would be dryness-free. it doesn't contain estrogen. my current pills do not contain estrogen. i don't know if estrogen is the problem, or if it is my meds, or all of the above. it is hard to single out a factor when there are so many of them! it isn't like i can just stop taking one.

i did try the iud, but i couldn't have it inserted because i felt like i was going to faint and throw up when they tried it. but i did try to let them do it (the copper one).

panz-
yeah! no way should you be bleeding! it is uncomfortable for me because of the dryness issue, but i use gallons of lube.

oh jeez, this has been a major problem for me. I'm on Paxil, Lamictal, Seroquel, Abilify and Desiryl (for when I can't sleep). it's nuts. even with lube it's still hard.
i'm thinking of asking my pdoc to change me off of Paxil, because I think it's causing my lack of ability to have an orgasm. blecchy.

so risperdal causes dryness? that explains a lot.... but hey, i remember...

TMI
TMI
TMI
TMI

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED


sometimes when i'm with myself i need a raincoat...but recently when i tried to be with my boyfriend i went dry and we couldn't because it was too painful, even oral was painful! what the hell was that for?
oh and yes, i have never had an orgasm by penetration... and they still wonder why i need antidepressants lol...

Hi

Bummer problem. You might consider asking your doctor for a counter-medication. Two oestrogen creams are Estring (a small ring containing 17-beta oestrodial (the stronger group of oestrogens). It is conveniant, you change it every 90 days. Alternatively, Premarin cream is used internally and or externally It's a little less discrete, having a faint fragrance. Of the two, I prefer the first option, whereas my dog clearly favours the second. Lugging about a 75 lb dog who is constantly glommed onto one's leg is both exhausting and embardassing. You may not be ....er....dripping wet, but you can live comfortably, and sexual issues will either be erased or made much more managable (lubes)

This is the stuff, by the way, that's controversal because it's derived from the urine of pregnant mares. I got over my issues with it after contracting 2 back-to-back vaginal infections caused by dryness, after walking my dogs.

Hope this helps.

i have had 4 kids trust me it isnt exactly the rainforest dampness down there
then i had a hysterectomy now we are talking the sahara desert!
YEP i had to give in and buy some Replense
it helps but i can never tell if its a yeast infection or its just dry

no complaints in the sex department
im happy as can be
everything is 100% there.

im tired of using replense there has to be some pill or something!

Too Pretty in the cold north country