Re: biofeedback/tanya

[Guest guest]

My understanding of biofeedback is fairly limited, I admit. So I looked

up Dr. Glazer's journal article " Treatment of Vulvar Vestibulitis

Syndrome with Electromyographic Biofeedback of Pelvic Floor Musculature "

and tried to figure some stuff out.

According to the article, their " rationale for studying pelvic floor

muscles is that patients with focal vestibulitis often show

hyperirritability of pelvic floor muscles, which, when compressed are

locally tender. " Furthermore, they say " In the case of vulvar

vestibulitis syndrome, we believe that cutaneous vulvar disturbances

destabilize pelvic floor muscles. "

It seems to me, after looking over the article, that Dr. Glazer believes

that vulvar vestibulitis is caused by some type of external insult

(i.e., injury, reaction to creams, etc.) which the pelvic muscles

respond to by tensing up (which is a natural biological response). The

body tries to protect itself from the pain, which ends up causing more

pain, which causes the muscles to tense up, which makes the viscious

cycle go on and on. So what basically happens is that our body tries to

protect us from the pain, and as a result our muscles get messed up and

end up becoming chronically tense and unstable in their activity. This

results in further pain. Glazer believes that if you can retrain the

muscles to act like they're supposed to, the pain will be reduced if not

eliminated.

brought up the question of " how do we know what's normal " .

Unfortunately, Dr. Glazer's study didn't feature a control group so

there's no answer within this particular article. Maybe someone else

knows of a study that did feature a control group?

It is common for women with VVS to have elevated resting tension and

contractile weakness of their pelvic muscles. That is what my

evaluation with biofeedback said. I have a hard time keeping my muscles

'tightened', yet when I release them they are 'spastic'. I didn't

pursue biofeedback because my insurance switched, but I plan on pursuing

it soon. The theory makes sense to me, as I have now developed trigger

points throughout my pubic area which are very painful. I can actually

*feel* the tension in my vulva and I am sure that it's just getting

worse.

Incidentally, biofeedback is not a new therapy. It is commonly used to

treat urinary and fecal incontinence and has proven to be very

successful. Dr. Glazer is the individual who has been using it to treat

vulvar vestibulitis and has his own protocol which he suggests the

therapists should follow.

Dr. Glazer is really open to answering questions about biofeedback. I

have emailed him and received replies numerous times. If you are

interested in understanding biofeedback more, I suggest you visit

http://www.vulvodynia.com and send him an email message.

I really feel that it's important to remember that some amount of

skepticism is healthy. We've all been through a lot of pain in

obtaining our diagnosis and in getting inadequate health care. We're

all frustrated because there are no easy answers and no sure-fire

cures. We've tried various treatments with the big hopes that this

would be " the one " , only to have our hopes squashed. We're all

different and we all have different skepticisms about different

treatments and we need to remember that. I'm a big skeptic of the Dr.

Crook's theories, but I have hope in biofeedback. is skeptical of

biofeedback, but suspects yeast may be involved in her problem. Who's

right? Maybe neither of us. Maybe both of us? Unfortunately there are

no easy answers at this point as to what is the cause and what is the

cure of vulvar vestibulitis.

Heidi