Vaginal Scar Tissue: What can you do about it?

Did you know that between 70 to 80 percent of all women who gave birth vaginally have scar tissue inside their vaginas? This may or may not surprise you, but what I’m about to say next might.

Most women don’t know what vaginal scar tissue feels like. Maybe this isn’t so surprising after all – because how would they know? Who would have taught them? 

It’s not exactly the most common thing talked about in the doctor’s office or mentioned after giving birth. But, why isn’t it? 

Why don’t these 70 to 80 percent of women learn that the tearing they experienced giving birth or the birth injuries they may have had created scar tissue in their vagina.

And that scar tissue can lead to health problems down the road.

Sadly, this is yet another neglected area in women’s health. But, times are changing for the better and this much-needed information is getting out there. 

This blog is one place you can get the information you need to identify if you have scar tissue and what you can do about it.

What is vaginal scar tissue?

In short, scar tissue in the vagina results from an injury that causes the tissues to become dense. As mentioned, the most common way this occurs is through vaginal birth. The injury in this case is tearing. 

Women who’ve had an intervention while giving birth, tend to experience quite a bit of tearing. So, in these cases, it’s more obvious that scar tissue will form.

However, many women give birth via c-section or give birth vaginally without any intervention, and yet these mothers can still have vaginal scar tissue. In fact, pregnancy alone can cause scar tissue.  

So the real question becomes…

What causes it?

Besides the reasons we’ve already talked about, including pregnancy and vaginal or cesarean births, there are a few other possibilities.

1. Accidents – Scarring also results from pelvic floor injuries, such as accidents or falls. Professional horseback riders can also have scarring in their vagina due to the nature of riding.

2. Traumas – Every aspect of our being can become affected by trauma. Whether the trauma was more emotional, mental, or sexual in nature – we can feel the effects of trauma in our bodies. 

Plus, as women, we store a lot of emotions (related to traumas or events that occur in our everyday lives) in our vaginas and pelvic floor because it’s a highly sensitive and intuitive area of our body.

3. Hormones – When we become menopausal our hormone production changes significantly which affects the tissues in our vagina (this can lead to dryness for instance) and cause new scarring or highlight existing scarring that was previously there.  

Even when there’s no actual scar tissue in the vagina, there may be adhesions that can cause a variety of painful and uncomfortable symptoms.

What are the symptoms of vaginal scar tissue?

It’s common to think, “I don’t have scar tissue in my vagina” because you haven’t noticed any symptoms for a long time, or it’s been many years since you gave birth – so it’s harder to understand where the symptoms you’re facing came from.

• Incontinence 
• Prolapse
• Pain 
• Heaviness
• Numbness
• Vaginal wideness
• Queefing (vaginal gas)

What does scar tissue in vagina feel like?

Lumpy, bumpy, rough, or dry are the most common words to describe scar tissue.  

Yet, for a more articulate answer, here’s a description from Ellen Heed, Scar Tissue Remediation Practitioner. She says that scar tissue “feels unpredictably tough and bumpy, compared to the feel of the other tissues around them. You can feel the tight dry, sticky adhesions.”

But, “when you apply pressure to healthy tissue, it retracts automatically away from your fingertips, almost like it jumps away.”

Based on doing internal vaginal massage on myself, I would describe scar tissue in the vagina as rough, thin strings. Or it can even feel grainy like hard sand or small little stones or knots.

How does scar tissue relate to pelvic floor dysfunctions?

As you might have noticed in the section on symptoms, many conditions that fall under pelvic floor dysfunctions were listed there.

There is a simple explanation for this. Scar tissue and adhesions are one of the main causes of pelvic floor dysfunctions.

That’s because they put a strain on the fascia in our bodies. And this is crucial because our fascia is responsible for connecting and holding everything together in our bodies, from head to toe. This includes our bones, organs, tissues, blood vessels, tendons, and even our cells.

When we talk about the fascia in our pelvic floor becoming affected, this means our organs can fall out of place, there’s a block in the flow of nutrients, oxygen flow and circulation slow down leading to all kinds of health challenges.

This happens because oxygen, nutrients, and blood have a hard time reaching the dense tissue (aka vaginal scar tissue) that desperately needs circulation in order to help heal itself. 

Yet, this is something we can do about it. In fact, there are several things we can do about it.

What helps with healing scar tissue in the vagina?

Scar tissue remediation is a big one. Yet, it can be difficult to do without the help and expertise of a scar tissue remediation practitioner. However, it’s not always possible to find one in your local area. 

Given the lack of practitioners and the cost of working 1-to-1 with someone, we’ve made it more accessible to use this healing technique on yourself by adding a course in our Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Program called Healing Pelvic Trauma.

It’s led by MoonRise Practitioner, Claire Eccleston, a mother of three, a Midwife, Pregnancy Yoga Teacher, and STREAM Practitioner, where she was trained by the pioneer of scar tissue remediation — Ms. Ellen Head.

This PYS course teaches you how to perform this technique on yourself in a comfortable, loving, and reverent way. 

Another effective technique you can try is to practice Hypopressive exercises. In just 10 to 15 minutes a day, when practiced correctly, these exercises will create circulation and fluidity in our pelvic floor tissues, which is why they work really well for PFD.

How to heal vaginal scar tissue

If you get guidance from a scar tissue remediation or STREAM Practitioner to do the internal work yourself, this is a snapshot of what that process will look like.

The perineal massage will consist of using castor oil (or another oil of choice) and your finger to apply pressure (holding down) on each scar you feel. Or if that’s not comfortable, you can do a gentle massage movement. 

The pressure and massage are super important because they get the fluidity and circulation going in this area, which eventually gets the vaginal tissues back to optimal health.

Doing internal massage on yourself can be daunting for some. And it’s definitely new for many. Yet, it does have some amazing healing benefits. 

And it’s something you can try for just a few minutes a week at first to get your comfort and confidence levels up.

If you have any questions about how to heal vaginal scar tissue or anything else you read about in this blog, give us a call. We offer free health consultations to assist and guide you on your healing journey.