Why it’s good to talk
My name is Diane Porterfield and I’m a Nurse Practitioner at Bourne2Care with an interest in Menopause and sexual health.Recently I saw a 30 year old lady and her boyfriend who asked for emergency contraception. She told me she had a young family, the condom split and she didn’t want any more children yet. She was really distressed and I wondered why.
She said she wasn’t depressed but just didn’t want to have sex. This was causing a lot of problems in their relationship. She and her boyfriend got really upset. When I asked her what her worries were, the main reasons were that her vagina felt sore and having sex hurt. I discussed with them the importance of talking about worries with health professionals. As well as prescribing emergency contraception I also discussed how she could prevent vaginal dryness and make sex comfortable again.
She was washing with lots of perfumed products, which I advised against. These can alter the PH in the vagina making infections and soreness more common.
Having searched online for vaginal moisturisers, I found SYLK and advised her to order straight away and use as directed, then buy water based lubricants when they were going to have sex with a condom.
I explained they could be intimate with each other without having sex, which she seemed relieved about. They were both a lot happier leaving and thanked me for my advice.
