It was a feeling I’d never associated with sex; I’d just had an orgasm, and instead of being filled from top to toe with a rosy glow, I was in pain. I rolled over on my side, hands on my abdomen and winced. The pain — a painful cramping sensation that made me distressingly aware of my abdomen and my pelvis — was an entirely new one. I curled up in the fetal position and waited for it to dissipate, which it did after a while.

I had no idea what had just happened, and I certainly didn’t expect it to happen again, but it did not long after. That was when I realized my painful orgasms were here to stay and I needed to figure out what was going on. A quick online search assured me I’m not alone. Dysorgasmia — the technical term for painful orgasms — is more common than I knew, and there are a number of causes.

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