My story starts when I was 10, in sixth grade. It was October, and applications for middle school had just started. My parents wanted me to try to get into a prestigious school in our area, but I didn’t want to attend that school. They asked me to just try to get in and then decide. On the way to the interview at the school, I experienced my first attack. All at once, a sudden, sharp, burning, and very strong pain started in the internal area of my vagina. I started crying and screaming in pain and we went home. Half an hour later the pain disappeared completely. Of course, my parents were very alarmed by this sudden pain and I began a series of extensive medical examinations.
There is no doctor I didn’t see, there’s no test I didn’t undergo, and there’s no treatment I didn’t try. Blood tests, urine tests, electrotherapy, crystals, pap tests, physical therapy, chiropractic therapy, Chinese acupuncture, Japanese acupuncture, ultrasounds, cystoscopy, MRI, and more. Nothing helped with the pain attacks and they even got worse over time. The pain became chronic and there were long periods of very strong pain and all that time no one understood what was wrong with me. All the tests came back normal. This situation was extremely frustrating for me and for my parents.
Ultimately, they concluded that the pain must be nerve pain, because it’s not possible to test internal nerve pain, and only after four years, I received a diagnosis of pudendal nerve syndrome from Dr. Ahinoam Lev Sagi. Since this is an extremely rare condition, it didn’t even occur to any doctor other than Dr. Lev Sagi that I had it, especially at my young age, so for many years I suffered from pain without even knowing what it was. Even after the diagnosis, I understood how rare this condition is and I didn’t know anyone else who suffered from it.
About six months ago, I decided I was tired of the pain and that it couldn’t be that no solution for my pain existed. I did some research and found that there is an operation that could help. I emailed Dr. Lev Sagi about the operation and asked what she thought, and she recommended against it, but she did recommend that I go see Lihi, and said she believed she could help me. I admit that at first I was skeptical. It was very hard for me to accept the idea of a new type of therapy after I had tried so many and nothing had worked. After a few months, I started going to Lihi and I immediately felt a connection and understood that this time was different. I’m happy to say that thanks to the therapy, I have healed from the chronic pain. I still experience attacks every now and then, but I know how to cope with it better, to prevent the next wave, and to understand where they are coming from.
Thanks to Lihi I understood that the pain comes when I am doing something I don’t want to (like back then in sixth grade when I didn’t want to go to the school interview). When my desires are not heard, when my environment does not understand my feelings and emotions, when I am in a place where I don’t want to be or even in a place that stresses me out — the pain appears. Just thinking about these types of situations can trigger a wave of pain. My brain identifies these situations as dangerous and doesn’t know how to differentiate between my emotional distress and real danger, so it sends the pain as a defense mechanism.
I have been suffering from this pain since I was young, and this is exactly the age where the brain is developing and learning how to behave and to act, so it got used to acting this way in these types of situations. Because of this, my recovery has been more challenging and is taking a longer time — but it has been very rewarding and I feel I can finally live comfortably without the chronic pain that my life used to revolve around.
I’m glad that I discovered Lihi and her method, it changed my life, and now at age 17.5 and after almost 7 years of chronic pain that controlled my whole life and shaped my entire childhood, I am finally ready and willing to live my life like any other teenager. I’ve started investing in my social life, my romantic life, my family life, and in myself like any other young woman, just 7 years late. It’s the greatest gift I could get.
To anyone coping with pudendal nerve pain or any other kind of pain, I understand your frustration and loneliness and helplessness, and I understand how hard it is to devote yourself to a new treatment and develop new expectations, but this therapy is different from anything I’ve ever tried and if nothing has worked for you until now, just like for me, maybe you will also find yourself in this therapy.
