Dr. Rachel Rubin

Tampons shouldn't hurt.

Tampons shouldn't hurt.

Speculums shouldn't hurt.

If there is pain, you must get a diagnosis of why you have pain, okay?

You must get a diagnosis.

You should not get a diagnosis of you're stressed or...

Or, oh, the doctor, you just need to relax.

Or, oh, you just need time or you need to stretch things out.

You need a diagnosis for why you have pain.

And so there are often big reasons why you might have pain.

Maybe you have a tissue problem.

We'll talk about that.

You may have a muscle problem because your pelvis is just surrounded by big, bulky muscles.

Why would a woman have pain in this area?

It's such a small area.

Yeah.

So if you have superficial pain, so anything penetrating hurts you, it could be a tissue problem like in the tissue called the vulvar vestibule, which is actually bladder urology tissue that nobody taught us.

You could have a nerve problem, right?

So you could have a nerve issue or you could have a muscle issue from your pelvic floor muscles.

Okay.