Clitoral pain after exercise: did I tear it?

Author: Aunt Vadge
Qualified Naturopath | BHSc(N)

Last reviewed: June 27, 2026

Hi Aunt Vadge!

I’m hoping you can reassure me – I’m panicking. A month ago I was doing pelvic yoga stretches and soon after got a burning pain and swelling in my vulva and vagina, plus a scary throbbing pain in my clitoris.

I took antibiotics and treatment for a yeast infection, and the burning and swelling have gone, but I still get a strange scraping and shooting pain on my clitoris, on and off.

What is this – did I tear my clitoris exercising? Is it dry skin? I’m so anxious and depressed. Will this pain go away?

Thank you,
Panicking
Age 32, USA

Hi Panicking,

First, the reassuring part: it’s very unlikely you tore your clitoris doing yoga. The clitoris is a surprisingly resilient structure, and stretching doesn’t ‘tear’ it.

The on-off scraping and shooting pain you’re left with sounds more like a nerve and tissue irritation than an injury or an infection – the kind of thing that gets the name clitorodynia (clitoral pain).¹ It’s real, it’s recognised, and importantly, it’s treatable.

A couple of things that fit your picture: if you’ve ever had clitoral adhesions or scar tissue in that area, stretching can aggravate it²; and symptoms can flare around your period, when everything swells a little with the hormonal shift. The yoga may simply have stirred up something that was already sensitive, rather than caused new damage.

(One small note: antibiotics treat bacteria, not yeast – so if anything, the swelling and burning may not have been a yeast infection at all. Either way, what’s left now reads as that nerve-type pain, not an active infection.)

Who can actually help

Persistent clitoral pain responds best to people who understand the pelvis and its nerves – not just a standard check-up.

A pelvic floor physiotherapist can assess and release tension around the area – especially helpful if you’ve a history of vaginismus or pelvic tightness.³
An osteopath is a gentle starting point if exams feel daunting – many work through your clothes, feeling the tissue and structures without internal work.
If dryness is part of it, a doctor can prescribe a topical oestrogen cream to help the tissue heal and feel more comfortable.

Choose someone experienced you feel genuinely comfortable with – it’s worth hunting around. If past gynae visits have been distressing, that’s completely valid, and a trauma-aware practitioner will work at your pace.

For some relief in the meantime, gentle acupressure or reflexology can take the edge off pain – not a cure, but some relief is better than none while you sort the underlying cause.

And please be gentle with yourself emotionally. Ongoing pain and anxiety feed each other, so easing one helps the other. Getting it looked at sooner rather than later matters, because pain that lingers can become its own problem.

You’re not alone in this, and with the right person guiding you, there’s every reason to expect relief – and to rediscover comfort and pleasure.

Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge

This is general information based on current research and our clinical experience, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.

References

Parada M, D’Amours T, Amsel R, Pink L, Gordon A, Binik YM. Clitorodynia: A Descriptive Study of Clitoral Pain. The Journal of Sexual Medicine. 2015;12(8):1772–1780.
Aerts L, Rubin RS, Randazzo M, Goldstein SW, Goldstein I. Retrospective Study of the Prevalence and Risk Factors of Clitoral Adhesions. Sexual Medicine. 2018;6(2):115–122.
McEvoy M, McElvaney R, Glover R. Understanding vaginismus: a biopsychosocial perspective. Sexual and Relationship Therapy. 2021;38(1):1–22.