This new study about women’s sex lives is really alarming

More than 7,000 women participated in a study in the U.K., which was published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the results revealed some information about their sex lives that you may want to hear about, because it’s a little unnerving. Almost one in every 10 women admitted that they suffer from dyspareunia, a condition that results in pain or discomfort during sex.

Dyspareunia isn’t talked about that much in the grand scheme of things, probably because we all thought it was a pretty rare thing to live with, but it turns out it’s a bit more common than previously considered. 75 percent of women have experienced pain during sex at some point in their lives, according to the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians. In fact, some of the women in the survey said they opted out of having sex altogether because they were so nervous about experiencing the pain. Okay, that’s upsetting.

Apparently, some of the most common causes of painful sex included vaginal dryness, anxiety around sex, and just not enjoying sex very much in general. In some rare cases, regularly experiencing pain during sex could point to a condition like vulvodynia, which is a chronic pain that affects the external vagina.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, don’t hesitate to ask your doctor about what’s going on. Maybe it can all be solved by incorporating some more lube into your sex life, but if there’s something more serious going on that needs medical attention, you don’t want to waste any time. And you should never be embarrassed to ask the uncomfortable questions.