Vaginismus is vaginal tightness causing discomfort, burning, pain, penetration problems, or complete inability to have intercourse. It affects a wide spectrum of women, ranging from young girls to older women due to a variety of reasons. Vaginismus is a condition where there is involuntary tightness of the vagina during attempted intercourse. The tightness is actually caused by involuntary contractions of the muscles surrounding the vagina.
At times, a woman may notice her vagina feels tighter than usual. This is because the vagina changes over the course of a woman's life as a result of aging and natural events, such as pregnancy and childbirth. Sometimes, these changes may cause a vagina to feel tighter than normal. As a result, some women may think their vagina is too tight, particularly if they experience discomfort or pain during sexual penetration. This belief is misplaced. A woman's vagina is almost never too tight to have sex.
By Tansey Tang. Has sex been painful during penetration? The condition, known as vaginismus, is not as uncommon as you might think.
The following situations and conditions can contribute to or cause pain during intercourse or other forms of penetration. The first few times you have intercourse or experience vaginal penetration, you may feel a small to moderate amount of pain at the entrance to the vagina. There can be some bleeding or no bleeding at all—both are normal. The reasons for the pain are not always clear, but it is typically temporary. An unstretched hymen vaginal corona has typically been blamed for this pain at first penetration, but new understandings of the hymen suggest otherwise.