I have vulvodynia – but countless gynaecologists dismissed my agony | Anonymous

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Statistics say that one in six women will contract this painful condition. So why did it take years and endless misdiagnoses before I was properly treated?

It was after a spate of kidney infections that I started experiencing intimate pain, including a burning and stinging sensation on the skin around my vulva whenever I attempted to sleep with my partner or insert a tampon. I was a student at the time and the first move of the campus GP was to test me for chlamydia. Although this came back negative, I was tested for the same infection a further three times over the following months. Then I was sent to a sexual health clinic, despite the fact I had one long-term partner and my situation had not changed. Assumptions were being made about me, I felt, because I was a student, and I was embarrassed that neither my GP nor the clinic staff would believe I was having safe sex.

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I have vulvodynia – but countless gynaecologists dismissed my agony | Anonymous