Sometimes, if you are suffering from chronic or acute joint or muscular pain, sex can be unpleasant, difficult, or even impossible. The pain of getting into the right position, thrusting, and moving in a natural rhythm with your partner increases existing discomfort. For people suffering from these conditions, sex might not seem worth it.
To us, that’s unacceptable.
Cerebral palsy may impact your sex life, but it shouldn’t define sex for you or your partner. Healthy communication between partners—and between you and your caregivers, as applicable—is a vital first step toward gaining the sex life you want. By experimenting with different positions and different toys, couples with CP can find new ways to experience accessible, enthusiastic, and satisfying sex.
Getting a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis can be frightening and exhausting. Because there is no direct test for MS, you’ve likely gone through an extended process of recognizing symptoms and ruling out other possibilities. And when the diagnosis finally comes, adjusting to life with MS requires adaptation and patience in equal measure. That’s particularly true when it comes to sex.
Sex and arthritis aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, sex can help with the pain and stiffness that arthritis causes. According to sex therapist Marty Klein, “Sex strengthens the muscles around the joints, which helps support them. And it's mood-elevating, which likewise helps alleviate pain." Studies and experience tell us sex can be beneficial for helping to alleviate the pain from arthritis—if you’re doing it right.
Getting out of the military is hard. By the time you’ve reached your end of active duty you’ll have spent years around people who dress the same, went to the same basic training, worked the same or a similar job, and understood even the most obscure jokes you made about military life. Coming home can make you feel like you’ve become a stranger.
And when you’ve been wounded in combat, vulnerability can be even harder to embrace. However, there are steps you can take to accept and embrace your situation, to thrive in this ‘new normal.’ There are ways to reconnect with your partner (and yourself) and accept intimacy.
