Been there done that. this is sort of embarrassing to talk about, but here goes. Every doc I saw told me it was atrophy and finally I went to a gyn my daughter recommended and she said it was not atrophy, but an incurable disease, not catching or deadly, just uncomfortable. When I would squat to pick up something from the floor I could feel tissue tearing in that area. The disease is Lichen Sclerosis and what physically happens is the tissue grows over the genital area. In my case it has grown over the urethra, so urine is expelled from the vaginal opening. After the disease is advanced the opening can be as small as a half inch and you can no longer have sex. the pain would be unbearable. I am assuming that we can no long have an orgasm because skin has grown over the sensitive area. The doc said there is no cure and everything has been tried including surgery to repair the area. She said she has 5 year old patients with the same disease. Poor things, I don't know how they will ever be able to have a happy marriage. Not many young men would put up with that condition. If this sounds like your condition, you don't need a doc to diagnos it, just use a mirror. I don't remember when I started having pain in my early 60's maybe, but my husband was really understanding and did not try to make love to me again. I was very lucky in that sense.

Thanks for the well wishes, HU-536588320. Sorry to hear about your alternative doc. My wife had a scare years ago, while she was using Prempro (or Premarin - forgot which.) Doc said she had a non-atypical hyperplasia in one of her breasts. Scared the crap out of us both. She then discovered Dr. John Lee's books, and that's why she started using natural progesterone cream. We learned about terms like unopposed estrogen, etc. Quite a journey that launched us both onto. I think you're right about DHEA being like a building block. I think some of the books we read called it a precursor...so instead of a woman deciding that her body needs more estriol, or estrone, or estradiol, or progesterone...if she supplements with some DHEA...then the body will turn that into whatever it needs. That's why I was so eager for my wife to try it some time ago. So, I was bummed to find out that she didn't respond well to it. It's been a while, but I think it irritated her tissue. I did some research, and turned out the provider or manufacturer of this particular DHEA suppository used a base that contained glycol (maybe even ethelyne glycol - been too long ago.) Well duh - that's what's in antifreeze! So the questions I asked and reading I did seemed to suggest it wasn't the DHEA my wife had a reaction to - it was the base they used. Not long afterwards, my wife came across the bezwecken cubes. They didn't bother her. So I read up on it a bit, trying to understand why she reacted favorably to that, but not the DHEA suppositories. Well surprise, surprise - the base used by the hydration cubes was kinder or more gentle - didn't contain that crap glycol chemical, lol. I wondered if we kept looking, and just tried a different supplier or manufacturer of DHEA suppositories...that also used a kinder or more gentle base...how would she respond to it? But since the hydration cubes did the trick...I guess we never pursued it any further. Wow - thanks for passing on the tip that, the DHEA does exactly for you what my wife and I are looking for. :-) Maybe I should get that recipe from you for the DHEA after all! :-) You know, you can spend a lot of time studying and researching all this stuff...but the human body is so complex and interesting...it still surprises you. It remains to be seen what kind of approach this OB/GYN will come up with. The first step was for my wife to get an ultrasound. I think that's in like a couple of weeks.

I tried the estring last year, and experienced abdominal bloating so severe it hurt to walk. Suddenly I understood why all the years I was on HRT (before THE study), I would experience sudden severe bloating. And the Estring didn't even help with symptoms.

gvecchio1, So sorry to hear about your loss. I am in that same situation with my father right now, it only a matter of time. Ya, isn't it crazy. You'd think these doctors would at least wonder what's going on their client base in menopause who are having muscle pain! All I know for absolute certain is that vaginal Estrace, used regularly, completely wiped away all the muscle pain. GONE. And the nodules that had developed on the sides of my fingers, vanished completely. When I went to an endocrinologist and spoke with her about this and asked for her opinion on whether or not this was all related to estrogen, she responded, "Well if it works." Seriously, that was her only comment and she wasn't remotely interested. So good luck to the next woman coming to her looking for answers with chronic pain. Woman need to keep connecting on symptoms and how they found relief. I hold out little hope working with the majority of doctors.