A Controlled Pilot Study Assessing the Acceptability and Feasibility of Using External Vibrators as an Adjunct to Vaginal Dilator Therapy in Women Presenting to Psychosexual Services with Vaginismus

Background: No clear consensus exists on the optimum management of vaginismus. Although vibrator therapy is of anecdotal use in vaginismus, the acceptability to patients is unknown. Methods: A mixed-methods study was conducted with 30 cis-women aged >18 presenting to a psychosexual clinic. The control group received standard care, including dilators, whilst the intervention group, in addition, received a vibrator. Initial questionnaires, including FSFI and FDS, were repeated after treatment at a minimum of 6 months, together with a semi-structured interview. Analysis included descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Results: Data from 19 participants were suitable for analysis. The intervention group rated the vibrators as ‘mostly’ acceptable on a 5-point Likert scale ( M = 4.3 (0.67)) and were more likely to report them as acceptable compared to the dilators (90% vs. 70%). Both the intervention and control groups showed an improvement in severity of pain scores, with the intervention group showing a greater improvement ( M = 1.40–3.36 vs. control group: M = 1.96–2.62). Qualitative analysis identified key themes: (a) the challenges of dilators, (b) increased confidence, (c) vibrators compared with dilators and (d) other helpful elements of therapy. Conclusions: The use of patient-administered vibrator therapy was acceptable as an addition to existing treatment for vaginismus. Vibrators were more positively perceived than dilators by the intervention group. Results from this pilot study are encouraging and indicate that vibrators in the treatment of vaginismus may be beneficial when offered as part of a multi-modal approach, although a full comparison study is required to investigate the effectiveness of using vibrators to improve outcomes in vaginismus.