Coital laceration involves bleeding from the vaginal area following sexual activity that may or may not be painful.
The uterus, cervix, vagina, and other tissue or organs located near the vagina can all cause bleeding.
What is a Coital Laceration?
Coital Laceration is simply the process of tearing the vagina during sex or vaginal tear. It may be caused by sex-related injuries.
It is usually caused by insufficient foreplay prior to penetration, resulting in vaginal non-lubrication. A severe laceration in the genital area might result in life-threatening blood loss.
Symptoms of Coital Laceration
There are situations when vaginal tears or cuts can be seen with the naked eye. There may not be any evident signs of injury in minor cases, such as those to the anterior vaginal tissue. The vaginal tear can cause the following symptoms:
- There is only slight discomfort.
- Swelling of the genitals following urination or contact with water or semen
- Inserting a tampon or engaging in sex can cause discomfort.
- Bleeding or spotting of any kind.
- Feelings of stinging, burning, or tearing may be experienced.
Causes of Coital laceration
A tear can occur if a foreign item is inserted into the vagina. Tissue thinning in the vaginal region owing to age or surgical scarring can further increase the risk which can also lead to a vaginal tear.
Even though there are numerous potential causes for vaginal tears, the most common is improperly lubricated sexual contact.
Other typical causes of vaginal cuts include shaving and waxing pubic hair.
Vaginal tears can also be caused by:
- Vaginal penetration with a foreign object
- Foreplay or involvement in rough sexual activity
- Tampon mishandling: putting them in and taking them out incorrectly
- Dryness of the cervix; when the vagina is dry it more likely to have a tear during sex
- Age-related thinning of the vaginal tissue
- the use of performance-enhancing drugs makes the skin prone to tear
- Infections caused by yeast
- A disorder is known as chronic inflammation of the external genital and anus regions of the skin. Tears and fissures are more likely to occur on irritated skin
- If you have psoriasis, you may see pink areas on the vulva, where the skin is too wet to be dry and flaky
Treatments of Coital Laceration:
Treatments of coital laceration depend on how severe vaginal tear is, there are some tears that are very shallow, such vaginal tear can heal on its own while a deep cut will take time to heal and might require medical attention.
Personal care services you can try to assist relieve vaginal tear pain:
- While the tear is healing, avoid touching it.
- You may experience fatigue if you’ve lost a lot of blood. When you’re ready to get back to work, take a break.
- You can use a pain reliever or over-the-counter pain medication. Stronger pain medications can be provided by the doctor if necessary.
- Wait until the tear has healed before using tampons or engaging in intercourse. We are talking about weeks or perhaps months here.
- Ask your sex provider how you might avoid similar injuries in the future if the tear was caused by an accident during sex. Using a moisture lubricant during intercourse is one option.
Make sure you seek medical advice when:
Medical attention may be required if your vaginal cuts are a result of an underlying medical problem, or if the wounds do not heal or get infected.
If any of the following occur, contact your doctor straight away:
- Continued or worsening bleeding
- Vaginal discharge that is abnormal or unpleasant smelling.
- Pains are severe or get worse
- If you have a fever when you are feeling the coital laceration pain.
- Fainting, dizziness, or weakness
Sometimes your doctor may offer treatment options like:
- Creams and gels containing antibiotics used to treat infections
- If a yeast infection is present, use an antifungal cream.
- Herpes outbreak patients might take antiviral drugs to treat the virus.
- For the treatment of atrophic vaginitis, use vaginal estrogen cream.
- Topical steroid cream for the treatment of dermatitis, psoriasis, and other skin inflammations
- Analgesics for the treatment of severe pain
- If infection from a vaginal cut becomes severe, an abscess may form and necessitate draining.
- Stitches may be required for deep wounds. Deep wounds and tears that recur may necessitate surgical treatment.
Prevention of Coital Laceration
As we all know the saying prevention is better than cure, It’s best to avoid coital laceration, and if you want to prevent it, there are many ways to avoid it, which includes the following;
- Use a lot of lubricants while engaging in a sex act. If you’re looking for lubricants that are safe for condoms, go for ones that are water-based rather than those that are oil-based. It is also more likely to cause skin irritation when using an oil-based lubricant.
- Sex toys should not be used.
- Consider putting yourself in the position of the person with the vagina on top.
- Allow for lubrication from sexual excitement to build up before engaging in sexual activity.
- The vaginal muscles will relax if you take a bath before sex.
- Refrain from shaving with razors that are either dull or filthy.
- Before shaving, wet the skin and apply shaving gel or cream.
- Shave carefully around any raised areas, such as pimples or acne.
- Note that the ideal way to shave or trim is to stand up, rather than laying down.
- Don’t let anybody else shave for you, since this increases the risk of nicks and cuts.
- When your skin is inflamed or wounded, it is best to avoid waxing or shaving.
- Always wash and dry your skin before waxing.
- When removing tampons, use caution and wait until they have absorbed enough liquid before attempting to remove them. Always remove a tampon carefully rather than yanking it out unexpectedly. Putting in a new tampon too soon might cause injury to the vaginal tissue if the previous one isn’t wet enough.
In conclusion, Gentile and sensitive, the skin of the vaginal area may be easily inflicted upon. If you have a skin condition, your skin may be even more vulnerable to getting a vaginal cut. Understanding what caused a vaginal cut or damage to your vaginal tissue is essential so that you can avoid it in the future.