Why do you get vestibulitis?
The cause of the pain is that the nerve fibers at the entrance to the vagina have become hypersensitive and react more to external stress. How much it hurts depends; some only experience pain during intercourse, while others can feel severe pain from even light touch.
Vestibulitis is still a relatively unknown diagnosis today, both among women in general and in research. In recent years, it has received more attention alongside other women's health conditions such as endometriosis, for example.

How to recognize vestibulitis
The most prominent symptom of vestibulitis is pain in the genital area. The pain can be described as a burning sensation, even with very light touch. In severe cases, the pain can last for a couple of days after the triggering touch. It is also common to have some redness around the vaginal opening. Due to the physical discomfort, anxiety and low mood are also common. It is common for the condition to affect self-confidence and for one to blame oneself, for example, because vestibulitis impacts the sex life.

If you have vestibulitis, you likely experience one or more of these symptoms:

• Burning, intense pain at the vaginal opening during intercourse; the pain can be triggered even by very light touch
• The pain can last several days in severe cases
• You feel pain when inserting a tampon or a finger into the vagina
• You experience pain from activities such as horseback riding, cycling, or similar
• The area around the vaginal opening may show some redness

Causes of Vestibulitis
Currently, it is not fully understood why some women develop vestibulitis, but there are certain factors known to affect the mucous membranes in the genital area, making them fragile and causing hypersensitive nerve fibers:

• Vaginal intercourse despite the woman not being lubricated
• Sexual abuse
• Infections in the genital area
• Various types of hormonal contraceptives (some birth control pills contain a certain corpus luteum hormone that can make the mucous membranes in the genital area more fragile)

Large number of unreported cases
The number of women diagnosed with vestibulitis has increased in recent years, and it seems that many cases go unreported. The increase may be due to more women seeking care or more women actually receiving the diagnosis. The exact number of those suffering from vestibulitis is unknown because diagnostic criteria vary between Sweden’s regions.
Between 2001 and 2016, nearly 9,000 women aged 15-44 were treated for vestibulitis, according to a study conducted by the National Board of Health and Welfare in 2018. About 54,000 women were treated in total when including vaginismus, dyspareunia, and other relevant diagnoses.

If you think you have vestibulitis, you should seek medical care
Pain in the genital area should always be examined by a doctor. To confirm that it is vestibulitis, a gynecological examination is needed, along with a discussion about symptoms, what triggers the pain, and how you experience it. The earlier you receive care, the better the chance of recovery.
There are currently no medications that cure vestibulitis, but by combining different treatments, the pain can be relieved and the affected person can become symptom-free. Below you can read about what you can do yourself to ease your symptoms:

• Avoid washing the genital area with regular soap
• Add extra moisture
• Use pads instead of tampons during menstruation
• Avoid penetrative intercourse when you are in pain
• Use lubricant during intercourse
• If possible, try to avoid stress as it can worsen the pain and increase muscle tension
• Try doing pelvic floor exercises
• Try different relaxation exercises; studies show that yoga and mindfulness, for example, can have a positive effect

What an examination involves
During an examination for vestibulitis, the doctor looks to see if the area around the vaginal opening is red. The doctor then tests where it hurts by gently pressing with a cotton swab on different parts of the mucous membranes; if it hurts too much, you should of course tell the doctor and ask to stop the examination. The doctor will then take some secretions from the vagina to examine under a microscope, and usually also test for yeast and bacteria.