Vaginal dryness. Not something to be embarrassed about.

It was my Dad that started Sylk over 20 years ago and growing up it was always something I was a bit embarrassed about and didn’t really take that seriously. Hearing your Dad say the word ‘vagina’ and ‘dryness’ is just not nice. I was aware of the business ticking away in the background and knew that it was steadily getting bigger and bigger, but I wasn’t really that interested.

Then seven years ago my world completely changed when Holly, my daughter, arrived prematurely and very dramatically……in true Holly style!! Previous to her arrival I’d convinced myself and all my colleagues that I would be back, feet under the table, Holly settled at nursery, in six months. That milestone came and went and there was no way I was leaving her. We’d just got ourselves in to a sort of routine, I felt like I knew what I was doing (at last) and she’d started to get interesting.

Then when we were approaching the ‘year’ and I was starting to panic as D-Day had arrived and my boss was asking me to meet to discuss my ‘role’, I got pregnant with Tom. Coping with feeling like death warmed up and a toddler I couldn’t sanely consider going back to being a Business Director. But we had a big mortgage and John had recently changed jobs so my Dad suggested I do some marketing work for Sylk and that was that. It wasn’t Kraft, Nestle, Green and Blacks or even Heinz but it was marketing, it was about ‘women’ and it would mean I could stay with my babies.

I spent the first couple of years (in between looking after the kids) getting to grips with the issue and who was affected by it. As a youngish woman you assume it’s something that only older, menopausal women get and that’s certainly who we were targeting initially. But as I got to grips with the subject whilst grappling with my own ‘dryness’ issues brought on by childbirth and having small children, I realised that dryness and discomfort is something everyone suffers with at some point. I regularly use Sylk now for lovemaking. When you’re tired and time poor, it just helps. Knowing you’ve got to get up at 6am with the kids, spending time on lots of foreplay is a luxury you can ill afford.

My dad decided to step down from the business a couple of years ago due to ill health and my brother and I have taken over the reins completely. We’ve moved the business to Kingston where we both live and we’ve completely changed the branding, packaging and website. We’ve got lots of new product ideas and with Tom now in full time school I’m fired up about getting really stuck in to this amazing product and brand!

And that’s why I’ve decided to write this blog.

Being a woman is not easy. Juggling work, childcare and social life as well as keeping our homes looking good, eating the right food, going to the gym, blah blah blah is so difficult. Well it is for me! But then I’m not Superwoman and anything that can make our lives easier is very welcome. We would this blog to be a help to women who, at different stages of their lives, are trying to find out about how to deal with vaginal dryness, as well as other personal issues, and want to provide sound guidance on current topics and a steer on what to do and where to go for answers without any embarrassment.