Archive for Sexual Function

Sex, Infertility, and More…

sex infertility

You health is important to living a long, happy life. Here are a couple of interesting articles we found that we thought you may want to read that will educate you about your well-being.

Very informative article addressing the link between endometriosis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Great read if you are looking for basic information.

A look on how to stay positive during your struggle with infertility.

This blogger breaks down the 4 key breaking points of her infertility journey.

Just three in every 100 men over the age of 50 are at risk of dying from the disease, yet around eight out of ten men are left impotent after surgery while three in every 20 men have bladder problems.

Can We Help You With Your Pain-Infertility-Obstructions-Adhesions?

When Intimacy Hurts

You are not alone

You Are Not Alone
It is estimated that up to half of US women experience pain with intercourse (dyspareunia), according to published studies.

This staggering statistic reveals a condition that often goes unspoken, untreated, and unresolved. For many women, this topic is neglected in their conversations with their physicians, gynecologists, and friends. But why? If this condition affects so many, why aren’t people talking about it?

Stuck in Silence
Women should be empowered over their sexual health, not stuck in silence. It is through empowerment and education that women can find answers to their pain and discomfort and begin on a path to health and healing.

What’s the Cause?
Painful intercourse, or dyspareunia, is often caused by adhesions. Adhesions are internal scars that form after a trauma, surgery, infection or inflammation. Perhaps you fell on your tailbone as a teenager, or perhaps you’ve had bladder infections, or a prior pelvic surgery. All of these can be implications of adhesion formation.

Tiny adhesions form on the vaginal wall and can bind pain-sensitive tissues, causing pain.

Tiny adhesions form on the vaginal wall and can bind pain-sensitive tissues, causing pain.

As adhesions form, they can cover and bind the nearby tissues and organs causing restriction and often pain. When these adhesions form inside the delicate vaginal wall, they can cause intense pain during intercourse. The pain has often been described as though the woman’s partner is hitting something at the entrance or with deep penetration. Some women experience other symptoms including anorgasmia (the inability to have an orgasm or reach a full orgasm) and decreased desire (libido). These side effects of adhesions can severely limit a woman’s ability to have a pleasurable and healthy sex life.

How To Treat Dyspareunia
So how can you treat this condition without causing additional trauma and adhesion formation? A hands-on physical therapy, called the Wurn Technique, has shown excellent results in decreasing pain with intercourse and increasing sexual function without the need for drugs or surgery. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Medscape General Medicine (2004) showed that 78% of women had increased desire (libido), 74% increased arousal, 70% increased lubrication, and 56% had increased orgasms after receiving this treatment.1

Endometriosis and Dyspareunia
Women who suffer from endometriosis often encounter painful intercourse as well. A study published in Fertility and Sterility showed a 93% decrease in pain with intercourse after receiving therapy.

What Physicians Say About the Wurn Technique


“The Wurn Technique® is remarkable; it is the only therapy shown to improve all phases of female sexual function, including arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and satisfaction. Amazingly, it does this without the side effects and multiple risks of surgery or drugs.”

Dr. John D. Perry, Psychologist
Author of “The G Spot”

“Their studies show improvement in desire, arousal/lubrication, orgasm/satisfaction and pain. I know of no other single therapy reported to increase all areas of sexual function. I am truly excited to learn about the Wurn Technique®”

Dr. Scott Miles, Gynecologist, Medical Director
Miles Ahead Health and Wellness, Indianapolis, IN

1. Wurn LJ, Wurn BF, King CR, Roscow AS, Scharf ES, Shuster JJ. Increasing Orgasm and Decreasing Dyspareunia by a Manual Physical Therapy Technique. Med Gen Med 2004 Dec 14; 6(4): 47. PMID 15775874

Uncovering the True Culprit of Infertility: Adhesions

Adhesion formation can cause infertility by gluing down delicate tissues and organs and reducing regular function

Adhesion formation can cause infertility by gluing down delicate tissues and organs and reducing regular function.

For many women, the diagnosis of infertility begins a dedicated search for help, hope and healing. Many causes of infertility go undiagnosed while others are diagnosed as blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, or hydrosalpinx. However, in many cases of infertility, the true culprit comes in the form of tiny internal scars called adhesions.

These adhesions form as the bodies first response in the healing process. As adhesions form, they can attach to delicate tissues and organs creating a strong glue-like bond that restricts movement and regular function. This restriction of function causes infertility when adhesions attach throughout the pelvis and reproductive organs.  Adhesions are a particularly difficult condition because they do not appear on most diagnostic tests. Unless the adhesions are extremely large, doctors cannot know they are there unless directly visualized during surgery.

Generally, treatment for adhesions involves a surgical procedure in which the surgeon cuts or burns the adhesive bonds throughout the abdomen. However, due to the trauma and healing process involved in this procedure, adhesions often reform, sometimes worse than before the surgery.

There is a non-surgical solution for treating adhesions called the Wurn Technique®. This treatment is a hands-on physical therapy that has been successful in treating the following:

An Excerpt from ‘Fertility Rates Improve After Addressing Underlying Adhesions’ By Laura Owens

One in eight couples is affected by infertility. Faced with the overwhelming emotional and physical stress of trying to conceive, many couples seek alternative treatments after conventional medicine fails.

The Wurn Technique® is one such approach. Developed by Belinda and Larry Wurn, this treatment is based on manually palpatating blockages caused by adhesions in the body, offering a drug and surgery-free treatment for infertility, chronic pain and a long list of pelvic conditions.

…Click Here to Read More…

Discovering a Treatment for Intercourse Pain

The Clear Passage Therapies (CPT) team is devoted to continual research and development. We always monitor our patients’ progress and feedback after treatment. Once we begin to notice a trend, we expand our research in that area to see how our treatment can help.

Long before CPT began treating intercourse pain, we did not even know our treatment could help in this area. Over time, the CPT team began to notice that many women who came for infertility treatment were also reporting decreased intercourse pain. Some women reported, “I’m not sure why, but I don’t experience pain anymore with intercourse.” Others were considerably bolder and told us, “My orgasms have been incredible since treatment!”

We decided to investigate further and also developed different manual physical therapy techniques that we felt could help female intercourse pain. We then conducted a study to scientifically test how our treatment could help sexual dysfunction and intercourse pain. The results, published in Medscape General Medicine, were more than we could have ever imagined. 91% of study participants experienced a reduction in intercourse pain and large percentages of women reported improvements in orgasm (56%), lubrication (70%), desire (78%), and arousal (74%).

CPT is now proud to offer a treatment plan specifically for women with intercourse pain and sexual dysfunction. As we continue on our path of education, self-improvement, and research, our treatment for these conditions only improves. Even better news is that at CPT, we never treat “parts” of our patients. We believe everything is connected; we often see that pain and dysfunction in one area is linked to dysfunction in another. So if you come for infertility treatment, but also experience intercourse pain, our therapists will treat both conditions. For more information, please see our article Infertility and Sexual Dysfunction are Linked, And Its Not All in Your Head and You Don’t Have to Cope with Painful Intercourse While Trying to Conceive.

Please visit our website to learn more about our treatment for female infertility, female sexual dysfunction, or painful intercourse. Not sure if you have sexual dysfunction? Read our article Is Your Sexual Function Normal?

Is Your Sexual Function Normal?

By Jackie

Many comedic movies like to poke fun at the relationship between men and women in the bedroom. While these portrayals are sometimes humorous, they fail in one regard: showing a real woman. In comedic movies, women are either portrayed as the sex kitten who will bring out the whip at any given moment or the completely bored lover who has to use “fake orgasms” or the excuse of headaches.

What is normal female sexual function? Occasionally having a “headache” or trying to spice things up certainly isn’t abnormal, but for most women, these two extremes don’t represent their sexual relationships.

To help define “normal” female sexual function, doctors designed the Female Sexual Function Index. It breaks-up female sexual function into six quantifiable categories:

  • Desire
  • Arousal
  • Lubrication
  • Satisfaction
  • Orgasm
  • Pain

Doctors have designed a questionnaire to help a woman determine her overall sexual function score. To take the test and see your score, visit the FSFI website.

If a woman scores low on the test, it does not mean there is something “wrong” with her. It may be that a woman isn’t lubricating enough, making sex painful. Or a woman may not be receiving enough foreplay, leading to decreased arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and overall satisfaction. Another possibility is that a woman is experiencing a particularly painful emotional time, thus decreasing her levels of arousal and desire.

But what if you scored low and you feel your sexual function has been low for years? What if you and your husband have tried to increase your sexual experience in multiple ways, but it just isn’t working? What if no matter what you do, you still experience pain with sex?

If any of these questions sound like you, adhesions may be contributing to your sexual dysfunction and pain. Adhesions form after any injury to the body – including vaginal infections, bladder infections, rough sex, etc. The minute an infection occurs, tiny strands of collagen rush to the site. They not only seal off the area from the rest of the body, but also help it heal. Although helpful, these strands of collagen can blanket the sensitive walls of the vagina. When the nerves of the vagina are blanketed, desire, lubrication, satisfaction, and orgasm can be decreased.

In addition to blanketing the vagina, collagen can continue to build and form adhesions. Adhesions can constrict the vagina, pull on the cervix, or pull on nearby structures. Whenever a woman attempts sex, pain is generated as the adhesions are stretched.

To learn more about a safe, non-invasive treatment for sexual function and intercourse pain, please visit our painful intercourse page and sexual dysfunction page.