9 Things That Happen To Your Vagina During Pregnancy Sex
byAutumn Jones
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Once you've conceived, you may very well want to keep on celebrating with a healthy dose of sex throughout your pregnancy. The pregnant state affects sensation, body shape, and emotion, among other things, and there are also specific differences in how the vagina responds to sex during pregnancy.
The good news first: "Sexual function actually stays pretty good throughout pregnancy," says Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., Clinical Professor of OB-GYN at Yale University, and "most women can remain sexually active throughout pregnancy."
Among those who may need to avoid certain sexual activities are people who experience pre-term contractions, those with placenta previa (in which the placenta is located over the cervix), or those with ruptured membranes.
Otherwise, there are several favorable changes to your body during pregnancy, including increased pelvic blood flow, as Minkin explains, which could mean sex is better or worse, or simply different — depending on your own physiology. (All the while, your baby remains well protected in its amniotic sac from any activity outside the uterus, so don't worry about that.)
As for the sex itself, your mileage may vary. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine looked at 520 pregnant women, finding that "all the studied parameters, i.e., desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain, decreased significantly with the progression of pregnancy." A 2018 study of women in their third trimester likewise found that "92% of participants had sexual dysfunction." Let that be a lesson to lower the bar, or change your expectations altogether.
Here's how the vagina behaves during pregnancy sex.