Vulva News Network (VNN) Special - Vulvodynia

Showy Ovaries with Penny Ashton.

In a break from menopause, Penny invites two of her globe trotting performer buddies to drop in and spill their souls about their troublesome bits. Both diagnosed with a condition they share with Penny, vulvodynia, they talk about their long and frustrating journeys to being diagnosed, treated and even believed.

Ingrid Garner who is an award winning performer of Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany, tells of her ten year process to finally getting effective treatment for her provoked vestibulodynia, and the joy and utter relief of being prescribed something that seems to be working.

https://www.eleanorsstory.com/

Amica Hunter, is a non-binary physical theatre performer with their company, A Little Bit Off, who has suffered from this condition since puberty. They told Penny about the surgery they eventually resorted to to alleviate the pain of a thousand needles in their vaginal 'stoop' and their path to identifying as non-binary.

https://alittlebitoff.us/

Despite all the shame and trauma they have both gone through, Amica and Ingrid kept Penny laughing with tales of the joys of discovering manspreading, feeling your pulse from the inside, opossum penises, and the tenacity required to get results in the American health system.

https://www.vulvodynia.org.nz/

https://www.nva.org/

https://tightlipped.org/

https://www.nelsonartsfestival.nz/event/showy-ovaries-live/

CW/TW: Talk of sexual abuse, painful sex, surgeries, sexual shame and abortion.

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