1. Community
  2. Women's health
  3. Lichen Sclerosus

What diets work for you? Loss of sex drive

Posted , 9 users are following.

kasiaj
kasiaj

Hi!

I'm only 19. Have been diagnosed with LS for about a year now and suffering for probably 2 and a half. My LS is not as bad as a lot of the women's on here. My inner lips have almost gone, the main symptom I get is itching when I have a flare up and my vagina has tightened up which has made sex difficult. Clob seems to work ok for me. The main thing that's really upsetting me is my sex drive has seemed to have gone completely. I can only think of this as being something psychological - perhaps due to many attempts of painful sex?

I have a very understanding and loving boyfriend. He's perfect and amazing with dealing with this disease, doesn't pressure me at all to have sex. But before I was diagnosed, I kept trying to have sex and I kept ripping etc. it was very painful. Then he went travelling and I had been using dilators religiously so when he came back, after a few tries it got a lot better and we were back to normal sex. However, I had a flare up and sex became painful again and as soon as this happened, my sex drive just disappeared completely. I feel as though maybe my brain has had enough with the pain and disappointment? It's been over 6 months now of this loss of sex drive. I am being referred for psychosexual counselling. 

Has anyone had this before and did it get better? I feel so sad about my relationship. 

Also does anyone have any dietary recommendations? Maybe I should try something to help.

Thank you all and I hope you're all well and coping fine.

xxx 

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • claire12259
    claire12259 kasiaj

    Posted

    Hiya,

    GIving up (or to a great extent) sugar, dairy and gluten worked fabulously for me. My LS has gone into remission. Hope you find what works for you cos I think we are all different although lots of people do see brilliant results with dietary changes x

    • chriscress
      chriscress claire12259

      Posted

      Hi Claire sorry to interupt your conversation with Kasiajs but i do tend to have a sweet tooth do you find that lowering the sugar in diet helps i will certainly try thank you regards Chrisx
    • claire12259
      claire12259 chriscress

      Posted

      Oh most definititely. For me, I think sugar and dairy are the biggest culprits. They are both huge inflammatories in the body. On a day to day basis I dont consume these, but if I go out for dinner say, I will have a treat and it generally is fine. I find that if i ate food with these in for 2-3 days my itching comes back. Alcohol and diet drinks also irritate. It is annoying avoiding these foods but you just get use to it and to be honest I very rarely want something sugary now. I think nuts can irritate me too. Its funny cos for years a lot of the time if I ate something sugary it would give me a stomach ache - obviously my body was telling me it didnt like sugar but I just ignored it. I would say you should start seeing a reduction in symptoms in 2-3 weeks, maybe less. Something easy to try and it doesnt cost anything!! XX
  • Jessicat
    Jessicat kasiaj

    Posted

    Hi I have a similiar situation, I'm 20 and have a very understanding boyfriend. I started using dilators about a month ago and I'm nearly back to normal sex, I only have a tiny bit of pain with it now. Have you stopped using dilators? As what I have gathered from them is that you need to maintain the usage to keep the vagina from tightening again. When I was experiencing the painful sex and I had a slight loss in sex drive but once the dilators made an impact Imy sex drive came back. I think it is due to the association of pain with sex. I think you should keep on with dilators regularly and the counselling sounds hopeful, I've recently had a course of counselling myself for ocd and anxiety that I think was brought on by the diagnosis of LS and it was really helpful, good luck with yours
  • Guppy007
    Guppy007 kasiaj

    Posted

    "My LS is not as bad as a lot of the women's on here. My inner lips have almost gone, the main symptom I get is itching when I have a flare up and my vagina has tightened up which has made sex difficult. Clob seems to work ok for me. The main thing that's really upsetting me is my sex drive has seemed to have gone completely."

    Kasiaj,  I would say reading your post that your LS is equally as bad as the women on here....

    You mention itching, I believe that itching is a red flag, and it is your body telling you that it does not like what you are eating. I think you need to start seriously looking at your diet. It is not easy, if it was everyone on this site would have done it.  But, once you are on track you could go into remission like many other women have found.

    Here is a suggestion for you..

    Be super strict for a MONTH with sugar, I mean strict! like no sweets, cakes, chocolate, alcohol.  Note what happens, stick with it, and it you notice a difference, (no itching) then SUGAR is your problem. This is the most common problem for women with LS, but you have to stay with it, it is important, because

    I believe your body is trying to alert you, but not only that, you are very young and you need to get your LS under control as you have already lost your labia minora.

    If you hardly eat sugar,  and nothing has changed for you, then I suggest you then go onto testing Dairy.  Start by cutting out dairy products, milk, cheese, everything dairy, do this for a month, you can use almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, anything but dairy.

    See how you are, if you notice no difference whatsoever, and you are still itching, then clearly dairy is not your problem.

    I would then move onto testing for Gluten.  People can be Gluten intolerant and have no idea, as sometimes people show no symptoms at all (or maybe they itch) Going Gluten free takes some work at first, you will need to test yourself as thoroughly and accurately as you can, it is important.  I would say the best plan is to remove everything in your kitchen that contains gluten and place it in a box and put it into the garage while you test yourself.  You will need to look online for information on how to shop and maintain a Gluten free diet, hopefully, you wont have to go down this route, but if you do, you have to do it properly.

    These are just my suggestions, do with them what you will, but remember to only test one thing at a time otherwise you won't know what your problem is. 

    My diet is extremely limited due to other health issues, but I can tell you that I do not suffer with itching from LS and I believe that is in part due to my diet.

     

  • melissa0
    melissa0 kasiaj

    Posted

    I personally believe diet is huge!  After learning of my diagnosis a few months ago and reading the advice on this forum I am made a huge adjustment to my diet. 

    I started by cutting out sugar completely.  I then moved on to gluten and dairy.  I also began drinking more water.  I have not completely cut out dairy as I have  Keifer everyday with flax seed, bluberries and a banana.  This is my only intake of dairy and fruit during the day.  I also cut out nuts.  I don't know if that is linked to my LS symptoms at all but it caused me a great deal of stomach pain. 

    I continue to run three days a week and also use other at home remedies that I found on the forum. 

    Best of luck to you and research, research, research. 

Back to top

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.