Areas of Specialty

Sexuality in Pregnancy & Postpartum

Studies show that there is anywhere from a 37% - 41% decrease in sexual satisfaction in women post-childbirth. 

As a Sexuality Educator with more than ten years of experience in maternal health, Lauren specializes in interdisciplinary collaboration and effectively treating multiple sexual problems in pregnant and postpartum patients.

Common post-childbirth sexual complaints include: loss of desire, decreased frequency of sexual activity, painful intercourse, diminished sexual responsiveness, difficulty achieving orgasm, decreased genital sensation, decreased genital arousal and new onset pudendal neuropathy (associated with a forceps delivery).

According to a 2002 publication in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, multiple sexual problems were present in 95% of the women at 6 weeks postpartum, 74% at 3 months postpartum, and 51% at 6 months postpartum. At 6 months, the sexual problems of 102 respondents included: loss of sexual desire (27%), painful penetration (21%), painful intercourse (19%), difficulty achieving orgasm (15%), lack of vaginal lubrication (13%), and vaginal tightness (11%). 

In women with sexual dysfunction after childbirth, Lauren works to:

1. Collaborate with Midwife, OB/GYN, and/or therapist to undergo “identification of the sexual dysfunction” by psychological interview, history (medical, sexual and psychosocial), physical examination, genital sensory and blood flow testing and blood testing.

2. Using a biopsychosocial model*, educating the client (and partner) by thoroughly reviewing the initial psychologic and biologic findings and crafting individualized curriculum including: anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology. 

3. If education alone is not sufficient in restoring ideal sexual functioning to the client. Our collaborative treatment strategy is to undergo “modification of reversible factors” by sexual therapy, medication changes, hormone therapy, lifestyle change and corrective surgery as indicated and when appropriate. 

Purity Culture

Religiously based negative sexual beliefs function like invasive weeds, diseased plants, and soil blight. Guilt about sexual behaviors is overwhelmingly associated with sexual dysfunction, low sexual desire, & low sexual satisfaction.

As a Sexuality Educator and survivor of purity culture indoctrination, Lauren specializes in interdisciplinary collaboration and effectively treating multiple sexual dysfunction caused by religious trauma.

In women with sexual dysfunction related to purity cultures and religious indoctrination, Lauren works to:

1. Shift the conversation from obedience to discernment to break through the stronghold of religiously grounded sexual repression

2. Using a biopsychosocial model*, educating the client (and partner) by thoroughly reviewing the shame, caused by religiously based negative sexual beliefs, that has caused psychological splitting and sexual dysfunction

3. Craft individualized curriculum including: anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology. 

4. Prioritize and define what is good for the student sexually.

SOURCES:

(Dale & Keller, 2019)

(Abbott, Harris & Mollen 2016 / Brotto & Gorzalka 2016)