I will always remember the first time I had sex; it felt as though someone was plunging a red-hot poker into me. My mind was saying "yes, yes, yes", but my body was screaming an excruciatingly painful "No". During my teens, even using the smallest of tampons caused a sharp pain on insertion, my vulva sometimes felt sore and prickly, and I had an ongoing burning sensation at the entrance to my vagina.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://patient.info/news-and-features/understanding-vulvodynia-and-why-it-causes-painful-sex