intercourse bleeding????

[tallguy1978]

Dear sir or maam, I have a question. My girlfriend is having some problems. She is bleeding after we have sex. She is 40 yrs of age and is on the pill. This has only statred to happen as of late. We have been dating since april and our sex life was fine. She had her yearly OBGY exam in june and everything came back fine. About six weeks ago she started to bleed during and after sex. It doesn't happen all of the time but it has become more frequent. She has told me that she has had no pain or discomfort from this, but then a few days ago she said it has started to hurt her just slightly. Yesterday we had sex twice, once in the morning and then again before bed. Both times there was no bleeding at all. Then this morning when she awoke in bed she was bleeding or had bleed in her sleep. Sometimes the bleeding is heavy and sometimes it is hardly anything. She has told me that her periods have not been affected by this and that they are normal. She has made an apointment to see her physician and will be going soon. I am just wondering if you could give me a clue as to what may be going on in this matter. I am not in the least conserned about our sex life, I just want her to be healthy and in good shape. I have researched this topic on the net and also talked with her about it. She has a close friend who is a nurse that has given her some suggestions of what it may be and she has disscussed this with me. Right now I am just trying to get some info on what may be the problem, for good or bad.  Any answers would be appreciated. Please post a return on this site, or send to my E-mail. ***@****  Thank you for your time....tallguy

[tallguy1978]

Thanx for the input. My girlfriend is going to the doctor in a few days.Thanksgiving and all that postponed it. I have one more question if you have any answers.Could this be caused by extreme stress??? We were talking about a possibility and this came to mind. This all seemed to start to hapen right around the time that she was under HEAVY STRESS!!! and it has continued all the way up untill last week. When it started, she was dealing with a very intense and stressful work load.And I do mean INTENSE! It was wearing on her in a very serious way. There were also a couple of incidents involving her daughter, one of which involved her finding out that her daughter of 16 is not a virgin.This upset her greatly and made her feel as if she had failed as a mother. To say the least very stress inducing, for both of us. There was also a breast cancer scare that had been building around the time when this started. She checked out A-O.K. But I know for FACT that it really shook her up more than she led on. She confided this to me at a later date.  This week of thankgiving she got the work monkey off of her back,FINALLY. In this same week we had sex about four times, all at the end of the week over this weekend. Not once did she bleed, spot, or have any discomfort of any kind. The whole week she has been happier than I have seen her in a least two months. Calm and collected, and all around in a great mood...Peacefull.  So, I guess what I am asking is if you think that all this stress could be a significant factor in this problem. If you have any input plese reply. Thank you so very much...Tallguy

[tallguy1978]

Thank you sir, for your kind and prompt response. You have been very informative. My girlfriend is going to see her physician on monday the 26th. She did have an IUD inserted about 6 years ago, but had it removed after a year. And also, she has had no spotting or anything abnormal any other time. This only happens when we have "intercourse". I am the type of man who is not shied away by women's physiollogy. (sorry for the misspelling). For me, not knowing anything is MUCH harder to deal with than knowing something or some information. Again, thank you sir. If you happen to have any other reasons why this may be occuring, (For better or worse) please respond. ... A concerned Tallguy1978.

[Machelle Seibel, MD]

Bleeding after sex can be due to many things. The commonest are a small growth on the cervix (neck of the uterus) called a polyp or an inflammation of the cervix. Either of these can be easily cleared up. It is also possible to have bleeding due to tearing the wall of the vagina if sex toys are used or if unusual force is used. Some bleeding after sex is due to an increase in the lining of the uterus, inflammation of the uterus or a small growth (polyp or fibroid) inside the uterus. If she is using an IUD, that could be the cause. There are many more reasons as well, most of which are not very serious. Rarely, they can be.

The best thing for your girl friend to do is see her doctor and have an exam. He/she might want to do an ultrasound to look inside the pelvic organs or if nothing is seen, they might want to sample the lining with an endometrial biopsy which is a minor office test. They might also want to look inside the uterus with a small telescope called a hysteroscope. As mentioned, most of the time it will be something not very serious that can be cleared up soon.
Machelle M. Seibel, MD