How long did it take you to heal completely from your episiotomy?

I’m a former nurse midwife and have delivered many babies. Most women are feeling back to normal by the 6 week postpartum visit, but some are not. Did your GF go for her PP check? Did her care provider take a look at her perineum?

Although most women heal quickly, it can take up to a year for the scar tissue to complete the process of softening and normalizing, but that doesn’t usually cause much in the way of symptoms. Some women have low estrogen levels in the first 3–6 months after having a baby, especially if they’re breast feeding and periods haven’t come back yet. That can lead to thinner vulvar tissues that are more fragile and feel sore and raw with intercourse. In some cases, I have prescribed vaginal estrogen cream to use a couple times a week for a few months and it usually helps.

There’s also the possibility of a vaginal infection that needs treating – can she make an apppointment to get checked out?

All of this holds true BTW for women who had tears instead of an episiotomy, and the estrogen issue can come up in a woman who didn’t even deliver vaginally.

I would just like to stress the importance of waiting to have intercourse until you have had your 6 week postpartum visit, at least. My husband and I decided to give it a try after 4 weeks and I ended up with an abscess along the incision. This was the worst pain that I have ever had to deal with. I had to wait even longer than I originally would have to heal.

Six weeks. Wait until then.

Never had an episiotomy, but I did have a small tear with my first delivery. I had sex before the six weeks was up. Not painful. We only ever had issues, which I’d say lasted at least a year, from when things would get a little bit rougher and not as gentle. It would make me feel sore or I’d feel a sharp pain from the spot being pressed on.

I think episiotomies are bigger, usually 3rd degrees, so they take longer to heal. I’d wait until all the stitches fell out and after the post partum visit. Then take it nice and slow with lots of lube.

By 6 weeks with no problems. Then again not a lot of sex with a colicky baby.

@MagsRags I didn’t go for my 6 week visit, but my baby is almost 3 months old now, and it still hurts. I think part of the problem is that the doctor stitched me wrong (my real dr confirmed that… the dr who stitched me up was on call for him) so I was healing incorrectly. I think he might have stitched me up a lot tighter than I was before. Either way, it’s still very sensitive where he stitched, to the point where I jump when it’s touched because I’m scared it’ll hurt.

I would call your doctors office and ask if you can still go for the PP visit so you can have someone take a look. It can be hard to tell how something is going to heal based on looking at it in the first few days. Even if you were inadvertently stitched to be tighter, that would cause pain when you tried to stretch it, not when you touched it. Sometimes stitches can heal with a bit of “granulation”, which happens when a bit of the underskin layer ends up caught between the skin on both side and exposed – even if it’s just a tiny bit, it will bleed easily, and be very painful to touch. It can be treated in the office if that’s what’s going on.

Don’t delay – the longer it goes on, the more apprehensive you’re going to feel, and that can set up a whole cycle of tightening up and thinking about pain which can create its own kind of pain.

@stemnyjones ; Wow! I would be talking to that Doc that stitched you, and then get it checked to determine when it’s healed completely so you don’t have to freak!