Hi there,
A few months after I gave birth, my sister said something that's stuck with me ever since.
"There are some things I didn't tell you because I didn't want to scare you."
I understood what she meant after I had my daughter. Everyone tells you to expect the sleepless nights. The diapers. The healing. But there are so many smaller changes that catch you off guard, simply because no one talks about them.
For me, it was vaginal dryness.
I was breastfeeding, and things felt different. Dry. Uncomfortable. My first thought wasn’t, “This must be hormones.” It was, “Is something wrong with me?”
Later, I learned that breastfeeding increases prolactin, which lowers estrogen, and estrogen plays an important role in maintaining vaginal moisture and comfort. What I was experiencing was incredibly common. I just didn’t know it.
|