The hormonal changes that accompany menopause can cause a number of changes in a woman’s body, the chief among them other than hot flashes, night sweats with REM sleep deprivation is vaginal dryness manifest as less pleasurable or painful intercourse. Many postmenopausal women are affected by this condition, which is often accompanied by symptoms such as itching, abnormal discharge, and pain with sex. For the women who suffer from it, learning how to treat vaginal dryness is very important.
Causes
Estrogen stimulates the cells that line the vagina to maturate. This makes the vaginal mucosal lining thicker, more elastic and moist. When there is a drop in estrogen levels in the blood stream, the vagina becomes dry, and the vaginal walls become thinner and more sensitive. Estrogen levels can be lower during the forties, but fall markedly just prior to menopause and at menopause, and also after pregnancy.
Treatment Options
Traditional topical treatment options available by pharmaceutic companies are very limited; specifically two creams and one vaginal suppository. Two of these options are bio-identical and the other is horse estrogen. While one of these medications is effective in the majority of women with vaginal dryness, there are women who do not adequately respond.
At the Fowler Gyn International.com (FGI) they are very experienced in diagnosing and treating vaginal conditions, and they know how to treat vaginal dryness effectively. In particular they carry out a Vaginal Fluid Analysis Test, which is able to accurately diagnose the degree of estrogen deficiency. Once this is known, they can customize a treatment protocol which often requires bio-identical estrogen mixtures that are not available from pharmaceutic companies that commonly alleviate the condition when standard preparations fail.