Woman can’t have sex because of agonizing condition

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A woman has opened up about the painful condition which means she’s still a virgin in her mid-20s.

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Shelby Hadden is a 25-year-old documentary filmmaker, and she’s never had sex.

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She opened up about her condition, vaginismus, in a 10-minute animated film she made, called Tightly Wound. In it, she documents her countless trips to the doctors and string of failed relationships.

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“I want to have sex. I want to do it so badly. I obsess over sex by constantly reading about it in memoirs, magazine articles and novels. I watch TV shows and movies to gobble it all up and learn as much as I can. I fantasize about sex.”

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It’s not through choice she’s never had sex; Shelby suffers from vaginismus. It means her pelvic floor muscles, which tighten the entrance to the vagina, spasm uncontrollably, meaning nothing can penetrate it.

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She explains: “While some men can’t get it up, I can’t get it in. Vaginismus is why I have never been in a relationship, fallen in love or ever had sex.

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“I knew something was wrong when I was 14 and started my period. When I tried using a tampon for the first time, it felt like I was forcing it into a hole that wasn’t there, causing excruciating, stabbing pain.”

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But she details how problematic vaginismus is in her previous attempts, and the lack of understanding men had when they found out. She said: “As soon as we started fooling around I was in pain. I wasn’t ready and he wasn’t right. Here I was – literally, figuratively, completely naked – telling him and trusting him with my deepest, most private and painful secret. He laughed in my face.

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