How can I relieve vaginal dryness caused by menopause?
To relieve vaginal dryness caused by menopause, there are a few options including localized vaginal estrogen creams or pills, and coconut oil (a totally natural solution). OB/GYN Jennifer Ashton, MD, discusses these treatment options.
Transcript
The last thing a woman with vaginal dryness wants is a drier vagina. [LIGHTHEARTED MUSIC]
So this is a question that I get asked literally every single day in my practice. A postmenopausal woman or perimenopausal woman
who's experiencing vaginal dryness and painful intercourse, that is a woman who is not going to want to have sex.
If it hurts every time she has intercourse, it's just not going to happen. So my primary job is to help her find
ways to restore the vaginal lubrication, the blood flow to the vagina, the integrity
to that vaginal tissue. I wish we could do these things to our faces. But when you're just talking about the vagina,
there are a lot of other options. To start with, there's just localized vaginal creams or pills that get inserted in the vagina that
slowly release estrogen just in a targeted, localized manner. I use bioidentical creams, but there
can be a whole range of creams that are available. They don't get absorbed throughout the body. And I even have patients who are breast cancer survivors whose
oncologists will say, you know what, I approve you to use this low-dose vaginal estrogen
cream a couple of times a week. I always defer to the breast surgeon or the oncologist on that manner, but it's definitely an option for women.
The other option that I recommend all the time-- and I talk about it in my book "Your Body Beautiful--" is coconut oil.
It's totally pure. It's totally natural. It even has a pleasant smell or taste sometimes,
which is also a plus. And women can use it just as a pre or during intercourse lubricant, or they can use it regularly
in and around the opening of the vagina. And it works great, and women love it. What I do recommend is that my patients
avoid purchasing the over-the-counter vaginal lubricants, because if it's on a shelf, a lot of them
will have chemicals that in and of themselves are incredibly drying and irritating to the vagina. And the last thing a woman with vaginal dryness wants
is a drier vagina. I really recommend that she goes the natural route with safflower oil, sunflower oil, or coconut oil,
and it works really well. [WHOOSHES] [HEARTBEAT] [BEEPS]
menopause
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