Woman only has sex with her husband once a year because of painful condition

A woman who experiences excruciating pain during sex manages to do it once a year with her husband.

Former care assistant Natalie Bricker was diagnosed with Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder in 2018, a condition that causes severe pelvic pain every time she is aroused.

The 35-year-old from Delaware, U.S, avoids sex with her husband Robert Bricker, 38, as she experiences agonising muscle spasms in her pelvis.

The condition is so severe that it can last up to four days, leaving her bed-bound and unable to walk.

Natalie experiences spontaneous genital arousal at least once a day which causes painful spasms in her vaginal wall and rectum.

Despite the pain it comes with, Natalie has annual sex as she worries about the impact the condition is having on her marriage.

She said: ‘Every time I feel pleasure or arousal, my muscles contract, and spasm, and when I orgasm my pelvic muscles go into spasm.

‘Whenever I get aroused my body goes into fight or flight mode. The pain becomes worse and worse. It makes even walking painful. Afterwards I get so itchy.

‘It’s difficult because you feel aroused and you want to do something about it, but when you do the pain is so intense.’

Natalie can’t masturbate either as it results in sharp stabbing pains around her clitoris. At times, she’s also had to resort to holding an ice bag on her privates.

Her main concern though is her relationship with her husband Robert.

‘My relationship with my husband has been difficult and I have a lot of insecurities,’ she explained.

‘Because we don’t have intercourse often I do have insecurities about whether or not he would cheat on me.

‘He’s a good man, he married me knowing the issues I have and the barriers that it creates for sex.’

The couple normally has sex once or twice annually but Natalie has to have a few drinks before going through with it.

She said: ‘It hurts, it feels like I’ve been hit by a truck.’

Natalie believes her condition stems from a car accident in 2002, during which she believes she injured her pudendal nerve, which is responsible for carrying messages from the external genitalia.

Although she appeared uninjured, Natalie experienced recurrent thrush and sex with Robert began to cause pain.

Natalie suffered with the condition’s symptoms for more than a decade before she was officially diagnosed with pudendal neuralgia in 2014.

A few years later, she was forced to give up her job as a care assistant.

‘I was so fatigued and I would have intense pain every time I had a bowel movement.

‘I was taking a strong painkiller at work to deal with it and if I had to go, the pain and the anxiety would set in. I began to have panic attacks.’

Since her diagnosis, Natalie has undergone several treatments to help relieve her pain as well as seeing a pelvic floor specialis

Now, the condition has gotten somewhat better as she can go for a daily walk and run errands.

She now dreams of having a family but says her chronic condition has made their path to parenthood more difficult.

If it doesn’t work, they may consider fostering or adopting. To help them deal with their life together as well as how to become parents, the couple is also in counseling.

Robert added: ‘I married Natalie when I knew we would have these issues because I am an eternal optimist.

‘I love her so much and I didn’t want to give up the opportunity to be with her forever.

‘I have hope that we’re always one doctor away.’

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