The World's Tightest Community - A Podcast About Vulvodynia, Vaginismus & Women's Pelvic Pain

What does it actually cost to get taken seriously when you're in pain? For the average woman with vulvovaginal or pelvic pain in the US, it's about $18,000 a year - paid entirely out of pocket. Today I'm speaking with Carmen Rising, a Brooklyn-based writer whose reporting on vulvovaginal pain has recently run in The New York Times and The Guardian. She came to this as a patient herself, and in thi...

What does a groundbreaking study on clitoral nerves, a Norwegian novel about a man who moves into the forest, and one question from Dr. Rachel Rubin have in common? This week's solo episode. This episode is kindly sponsored by  Pelva . Use code TWTC10 at checkout to receive 10% off your first order. (I earn a commission if you purchase through my link.) In this episode, I cover four things that ha...

Why does desire so often disappear after sex has become painful - and is there actually anything you can do about it? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Corey Babb, a board-certified gynecologist and one of my favorite voices in sexual medicine, whose Substack writing on desire and arousal is some of the clearest thinking on these topics out there. He returns to the podcast to set the record str...

Why does the body sometimes hold onto pain long after there's a clear physical reason for it? And what would it take to actually shift that? In this episode, I speak with Brooke Bralove, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C), psychotherapist, AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, and Certified Master ART Practitioner with over 20 years in private practice. After accelerated resolution therapy (ART)...

What happens to the person standing closest to your pain - the one who witnesses it but is almost never asked about? In this episode, I speak with Linn Myrtveit-Stensrud, a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Linn has spent her career studying vulvodynia in heterosexual relationships - specifically, how partners respond to pain, and how those r...

For years, the hormonal and muscular causes of vulvar pain have become easier to understand and treat. Inflammation is the part we still understand the least - and it may be one of the biggest missing pieces in provoked vestibulodynia. Dr Jill Krapf returns to the podcast for one of the most cutting-edge conversations we've had on vulvodynia. She's a gynaecologist specialising in vulvovaginal diso...

Why do so many people with vulvovaginal pain leave their OBGYN's office feeling dismissed - or worse, like the problem is in their head? The answer might have less to do with individual doctors and more to do with what they were never taught. In this episode, I speak with Noa Fleischacker, co-founder and executive director of TightLipped, a grassroots patient advocacy organization working to chang...

I recently hit a wall that I, of all people, should not have hit. And it reminded me exactly why this podcast exists. But this episode is also about something else. I've been self-funding this podcast for about a year, and I'm now at the point where I need to figure out how to keep it going. That means sponsorships, and possibly other things too - and I want you involved in that conversation. If t...

What happens to your body - and your pelvic floor - when you want to get pregnant, and you have a history of vaginismus or pelvic pain? In this episode, I speak with Dr. Saige Evans, an occupational therapist with a clinical doctorate in occupational therapy and the clinical director at Bloom Pelvic Therapy in Tampa Bay, Florida. She leads a team of pelvic health OTs and PTs across three clinics a...

What happens to desire when your body becomes unpredictable? Sara Sturek is a writer and founder of Writing Shamelessly, whose essay "From Shamans to Sex Toys" is published in Women's Health magazine. She has lived with hormonally-mediated vulvodynia since she was 21, and she writes about desire, sexuality, and the diagnostic odyssey with an honesty and literary precision that's rare in this space...

If you're new to this podcast - hi! I'm so glad you're here. This is the episode I want you to start with. Whether you've just been diagnosed, you've been searching for answers for years, or you typed something into Google at 2am that you've never said out loud to anyone - you're in the right place. In this solo episode, I walk you through the basics of chronic vulvovaginal and pelvic pain - what...

Can CBD help with pelvic pain - and if so, how does it actually work? In this episode, I speak with Tamar Hill, co-founder of Medroots, a company making CBD and low-dose THC suppositories for pelvic pain, vulvodynia, vaginismus, dyspareunia, and sexual health. Tamar is a former biology teacher turned entrepreneur, and she brings both the science and hard-won knowledge of navigating the CBD regulat...

What does it mean to do everything right for fifteen years — and still not get to the bottom of your pain? In this episode, I speak with Carli Cutchin, a writer and disability advocate with a background as a comparative literature scholar. Carli has lived with pudendal neuralgia for fifteen years and writes about chronic pain and disability for publications including Ms. Magazine. She is one of th...

There is no medication approved specifically for vulvodynia. Not a single one. John Connell and his team are trying to change that. In this episode, I sit down with John Connell, Chief Scientific Officer at MAC Clinical Research — one of the UK's longest-established contract research organisations. John has spent over 35 years in clinical research, and has been working with Danish biotech Initiato...

For a long time, I've been standing slightly to the side of my own experience on this podcast. Today, I step into the center of it. In this solo episode, I share my full story with vulvodynia and vaginismus for the first time - from the first symptoms five years ago to the rock bottom moment that broke me open, and eventually, to the unexpected thing that gave me the strength to keep going. I talk...

Can Botox really help treat vaginismus and vulvodynia - and if so, how does it actually work? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Corey Babb, a board-certified gynecologist, ISSWSH fellow, and one of only four providers worldwide trained in the Pacik Multimodal Botox Protocol for vaginismus. Dr. Babb is the founder of Haven Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and co-authored the landmark research that est...

Social media platforms are systematically censoring medically accurate women's health content. Words like vulva, vagina, and vulvodynia are being flagged, shadow banned, and suppressed - not because they're explicit, but because the systems designed to moderate content were never built to tell the difference. This is about accurate, life-saving health information being treated as obscene. The prob...

What if the answer to painful sex wasn't another dilator - but something genuinely novel? In this episode, Mathilde sits down with Kelley, co-founder of Pelva and a fellow woman with lived-experience  who went from primary vaginismus and provoked vestibulodynia to building one of the most innovative femtech products in the vulvovaginal pain space. Kelley breaks down exactly how Pelva's hydrogel va...

In this episode, I'm joined by Heather Coppard - nurse, hypnotherapist, and author.  Heather spent years navigating the healthcare system as a patient with persistent vulval pain, experiencing firsthand the dismissal, gaslighting, and harmful messaging that so many of us know all too well. One particularly devastating appointment with a specialist became the turning point that drove her to write h...

I just got back from the ISSWSH (International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health) annual meeting in Long Beach, California - and I couldn't wait to bring everything I heard straight to you. This solo episode is part conference recap, part deep dive into the research I think matters most for anyone living with vulvovaginal pain, pelvic pain, or sexual pain of any kind. In this episode...

For decades, vulvodynia was considered a mystery condition with few answers and limited treatment options. That's no longer the case. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Goldstein - Clinical Professor at George Washington University and one of the world's leading experts on vulvar and pelvic pain - explains how 25 years of dedicated research has transformed our understanding of vulvodynia from a "black bo...

If you're dealing with vaginismus or vulvodynia, you know how limited treatment options can feel - and how rarely we see real innovation in this space. That's why I was so intrigued when I discovered light therapy as a potential tool for pelvic pain relief. In this episode, I sit down with Liz Frey, a pelvic health physiotherapist and Women's Health Medical Director at Fringe, to explore how light...

After experiencing vaginismus for over 15 years, Lauren found a treatment approach that finally worked - and it looked very different from the clinical, physical therapy-style dilation she'd tried before. In this conversation, Lauren opens up about her journey from her first painful gynecologist visit at age 12 through years of inadequate medical advice ("just relax" and "have a glass of wine"), t...

This episode isn't just about dating and relationships - though we definitely talk about that. It's about how vaginismus can impact every corner of your life: your confidence at work, whether you feel like an imposter in your career, how you express yourself creatively through movement or dance, your ability to assert yourself in everyday situations, and the mental space it occupies in your mind....

As the year closes, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you - to everyone who's listened, shared, and reached out. In this episode, I reflect on the journey so far, share a personal update on my own journey, and talk about about why fact-checking and accountability matter so much when it comes to information about women's bodies. Your feedback shapes this podcast. If you ever want to talk, sugg...