When Sex Hurts: Understanding and Healing Pelvic Pain

For the 20 million people who suffer from pelvic pain: the completely revised and updated guide for making sex feel good again.

Pelvic pain can lead to embarrassment, silence, and misdiagnosis. It can hurt your relationship as well as your sense of self. Tackling the stereotypes, myths, and realities of pelvic pain, this easy-to-understand, accessible guide will help readers get the help they need and deserve, offering key information on:

• The most urgent questions about the causes of pelvic pain
• The more than twenty causes of pelvic pain
• How to find the right doctor
• The relationship between pelvic sex and genetics
• The newest in treatment for pelvic pain and pelvic pain indications
• How psychological factors can contribute to and reduce pelvic pain

Featuring groundbreaking research and stories from people who’ve lived it, When Sex Hurts provides the tools you need to stop hurting and start healing.

Andrew Goldstein, MD, is a national medical expert on sexual pain and dysfunction. He is the President-elect of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health and is on faculty at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He lives in Maryland.

Caroline Pukall, PhD, is a leading researcher of women’s sexual function and dysfunction and an associate professor at Queen’s University. Dr. Pukall has also been interviewed by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Bodies, Science VS), Best Health and InStyle magazines, the Globe and Mail newspaper, Reuters, and The Atlantic. She lives in Ontario.

Jill Krapf, MD is a Board-Certified OB/GYN who specializes in female sexual pain, including vulvodynia, overactive pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, and vulvar lichen sclerosus. She earned her M.D. from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The George Washington University, serving as Chief Administrative Resident, and completed a Medical Education fellowship and subsequently earned a Masters in Education. She enjoys cross-stitch, barre, skiing, and traveling with her husband and three active children.

Irwin Goldstein, MD has been involved with sexual dysfunction research for nearly fifty years. Dr. Goldstein is Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital, Clinical Professor of Surgery at University of California at San Diego and Director of San Diego Sexual Medicine where he maintains his clinical practice.