The Forum stands for many things. It allows women to realize they are not alone and they don’t need to live in silence. It gives them a voice. It creates a sense of community with everyone sharing their thoughts and ideas. By reading what others write it gives definition to one’s own feelings. Sometimes it’s too hard to figure it out, but when someone else writes something that makes sense, it can become an epiphany! I learned what vaginismus really means, not from the scientific literature, but from the stories my patients told me.
Everyone’s participation is crucial to the success of the Forum. Everyone’s story is different yet there is a common theme of feeling less than, feeling like “freaks”, feeling one’s world has fallen apart, the constant fear that one will be left alone, the inability to raise a family, and being inundated with these thoughts 24/7. When everyone posts, when everyone becomes an advocate, our collective voices will thunder through the silence. Then we will be whole and our voices will have been heard.
