Help against pain during sex

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Pain during sex spoils the pleasure of many women. The problems often occur during menopause - but they also affect a large proportion of women who have had breast cancer. Now there is a promising therapeutic approach for those affected: lidocaine. The local anesthetic is applied in combination with a lubricant before sex.

"The physical and psychological effects on breast cancer survivors are very specific, but are often not considered and treated enough," says study director Martha Goetsch from Orgegon Health & Science University.

Anti-cancer therapy with side effects

In fact, between 70 and 100 percent of former breast cancer patients suffer from sexual disorders - including pain during intercourse, known as dyspareunia. It is a side effect of a therapy that is supposed to keep the level of estrogen in the blood low. This is important for so-called estrogen-sensitive tumors, which are stimulated to grow by the female sex hormone. The artificially induced lack of estrogen is often associated with symptoms that are also typical of menopause - this also includes pain during sex.

Hardly any pain

In one experiment, 46 breast cancer patients with severe pain during intercourse were given either a lidocaine solution or a saline solution. They applied this to the vaginal vestibule, the area between the labia minora, in combination with a lubricant three minutes before sex. The effect was considerable: thanks to the narcotic, the pain during sex was reduced from an average of eight to just one point, assessed using a ten-point pain scale. Women who had only received a saline solution also felt less pain than before, but still rated it much more strongly with an average of 5.3 points. After one month, all participants received lidocaine for another month.

pleasure instead of frustration

Subsequently, 90 percent of the participants reported having experienced pleasant penetrations, while the sexual practice had previously been impossible for half of the participants because of the pain. Sexual stress was also greatly reduced: women, for example, felt less guilty or frustrated about their sex lives. In addition, the sexual function improved. The questionnaire that determines this asks, among other things, the frequency with which sexual desire and excitability occur or the number of orgasms.

Goetsch advises women who experience pain during sex to talk to their doctor about a combination treatment of lubricant and lidocaine. This applies to both breast cancer survivors and affected women after the menopause. (cf)

Source: Martha F. Goetsch: A Practical Solution for Dyspareunia in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of clinica Oncology, July 27, 2015, doi: 10.1200 / JCO.2014.60.7366

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