Good day to you all. I completed menopause almost a decade ago, and am now 63. I have no children - not through design, but because my body just wouldn't stay pregnant. Probably just as well really, as my marriage fell to bits after the final IVF cycle ... I've been single since before peri-menopause, apart from the occasional deeply regretted dalliance, which was initially a relief, and then became habit, and now - sadly - I think it's all too late, and if a man makes a pass at me now, I am frankly PETRIFIED. When I was going through the menopause, I experienced terrible night sweats and hot flushes, and was prescribed HRT, but the wisdom back then was that you should take it for the least possible time. So I came off it after around 9 months. I very much regret that, because the advice now seems to be to stay on it as long as you can. And my body has aged more in the past ten years than it did during the previous 40 years. Inside, it seems, as well as on the outside. It's not just my face and my boobs that have headed south, I think my pelvis has too. For the past six or so months, I've been experiencing irregular and very painful vaginal muscle spasms directly after orgasm (which I still try to do regularly, to keep things 'ticking over', even though my sex-drive is now almost non-existent). Not every time, but enough to put me off significantly, because the painful spasms last anything up to an hour afterwards. So I did some reading and my research suggested that I might have vaginal atrophy, and that this could be improved by oestrogen pessaries - so I went to see my GP and she prescribed me estradiol 10mg. I didn't mention the spasms to her though, and I should have. I've been using the estradiol for around six weeks now, the last four weeks being 2x a week rather than every day. During the first week, it was difficult to get the pessary applicator up becuase my poor vag was dry as a bone, and I had pink smears on the toilet paper afterwards. During the second week there far more lubrication and insertion was fine. Then I reduced the dosage to 2x a week instead of every day. All was fine until last week, when I had a spontaneous and very painful vaginal muscle spasm, which just came out of nowhere. And, since then, I've had a continuous dull ache in my vagina. Then, last night, when I went to insert my bi-weekly pessary, I found that, despite there being sufficient lubrication, I just couldn't insert the applicator more than about 1.75 inches up my vagina. It just wouldn't go any further up, so I had to insert the pessary barely half way up. And then I sat in bed with my iPad and did some more research - and found this website - and very thankful I am too that I did. From reading other threads on this Forum, I now suspect I have a prolaspe of some sort. Just my luck - I haven't even had children. When I have to do the next pessary insertion, on Wednesday, I'll try laying down on my back on my bed, and see if this makes any difference. And when I know if it does - or doesn't - then I'll book another appointment with my GP, which I am dreading, because I absolutely hate having internal examinations ... Anyway, that's me, and if anyone has any advice or has experienced anything similar, please let me know. I am currently feeling very gloomy about it all.
