Tight muscles around the opening of the vagina are a common cause of pain during sex.

Sometimes vaginal dryness during menopause can make intercourse painful. If you start expecting pain with intercourse, the muscles in your body might tighten, including the ones at the opening of the vagina. This is called vaginismus, and you don’t have a lot of control over it.

Vaginismus often starts because of reacting to pain when having sex again after being abstinent or after having a medical problem that caused pain during intercourse. Sometimes, even after your body has healed from treatment, the muscle spasms stay.

• If you have a lot of vaginal tightness, think about using a vaginal dilator.
• If you have tight pelvic floor muscles, do pelvic floor exercises.​