Renewing your Sex Life after Childbirth

Irwin Goldstein, MD

Women’s sexual function is a complex integrated phenomenon that reflects both her psychological sociocultural, interpersonal influences as well as her biologic influences including the health of her gynecologic, urologic, endocrinologic, cardiovascular and central and peripheral nervous systems. If a woman has a sexual dysfunction that causes personal distress, she has the right to appropriate holistic (biologic and organic) sexual health management. 

At the Institute for Sexual Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, we have evaluated over 1200 women for psychologic and biologic concerns with sexual dysfunction since 1998. One of the most common complaints has been persistent or consistent sexual dysfunction since childbirth. Post-childbirth sexual complaints include: loss of desire, decreased frequency of sexual activity, painful intercourse, diminished sexual responsiveness, difficulty achieving orgasm, decreased genital sensation, decreased genital arousal and new onset pudendal neuropathy (associated with a forceps delivery).