Aunt Vadge: scrapes from masturbating

Hi Aunt Vadge,

I keep on fingering myself, not inside my vag but around my vag, I push it and rub it etc. This afternoon the left side of my vag [vulva] really hurt when I tried to touch it. It hurt like when your skin accidentally scrapes off and you touch it (if that makes sense). It doesn’t hurt if I don’t touch it and it’s not bleeding or anything.

What should I do?

Thanks,
Fingered Nightmare
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Hi there Fingered Nightmare,

It sounds like you may have torn a small piece of your flesh, which happens sometimes. The connections between your vaginal lips (labia minora, labia majora and the clitoral hood) are actually very delicate, and if you move them the wrong way, sometimes it can cause a tiny tear to appear.

Observe precisely where the sore part is by finding a hand mirror and taking a look – it will likely be red. You might find that the area you feel the soreness is a connecting point, like a corner, since the entire vulva is connected. Alternatively, you may have nicked yourself with a fingernail and didn’t realise.

Either way, your labia will heal up in a few days, so keep the area clean with normal showering, and don’t touch it again until it’s healed fully, as you can reopen the small stitches your body uses to close wounds of any size.

The vulva and vaginal tissues are prone to damage because not only can we not see what we’re doing, most people don’t really understand the area very well, and are rough, or accidentally cause damage. Try to learn more about your vulva so you can avoid repeating the same mistake twice – it’s intricate and interesting, and worth knowing more about!

You will be just fine.

Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge