Will I Be Able to Enjoy Sex Again After Leep

The average time to expect before having sex after a loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) is almost iv to six weeks. Depending on how much of your cervical tissue is removed, you may need to await a longer or shorter time before having sex. Mostly speaking, the more abnormal the cervical tissue, the more fourth dimension information technology will take the cervix to fully heal.

Verywell / Emily Roberts

What Is LEEP?

LEEP is a procedure that's done to scrape abnormal cells from the surface tissue of your cervix.

LEEP is often used as a method for obtaining specimens of your cervical tissue and so they tin be examined to determine if y'all have cancer or cervical dysplasia, a condition that can lead to cancer. If this type of cancer or precancer tissue is found, information technology can be removed with LEEP. The process is typically done after less invasive procedures, including Pap testing or colposcopy.

If abnormal tissue is found during Pap testing or colposcopy, LEEP may be done to examine and care for the abnormal cell growth. Colposcopy is a noninvasive procedure using a microscope-like device to view your cervix.

Sex and Risks After LEEP

Having sex before your cervix has healed completely after LEEP would increase your risk of infection.

In improver to non having sexual practice or vaginal penetration, other precautions include:

• Exercise non take tub baths for a specified length of fourth dimension (ordinarily near three days after LEEP). You tin take showers.
• Practise not use whirlpools or Jacuzzis.
• Use sanitary napkins (pads) instead of tampons.

Call or see your healthcare provider to find out how long you should wait to resume sex activity.

You should also call your healthcare provider if whatever of the following occurs during your recovery:

• Abnormally heavy bleeding (heavier than your menstrual flow)
• Bleeding with clots
• Foul-smelling vaginal discharge
• Fever over 100.iv F
• Abdominal pain.

Fifty-fifty if you feel fine and believe your neck is fully healed, you should follow your healthcare provider's guidance about when it will be safe for you to start having sex once again.

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Potential Obstetric Risks

About people take mild or no complications subsequently LEEP. However, the removal of cervical tissue in LEEP tin can weaken your neck, and this can cause pregnancy complications.

In general, LEEP is also associated with difficulty getting pregnant, as well equally increased hazard of pre-term birth and/or low-birth-weight of the baby. These risks decline ane twelvemonth after the procedure.

• I study has shown that among people who have previously had LEEP procedures, miscarriages were reported at a rate of virtually 18% in pregnancies that occurred less than 12 months after the procedure.
• In some other study, people with previous LEEP procedures had a vii.2% rate of preterm deliveries, whereas the control population had a 4.vi% rate of preterm deliveries.
• The risk of preterm delivery increased in people who have had repeat LEEP procedures; therefore, it is advisable to avert having echo LEEPs, peculiarly during reproductive years.
• In pregnancies that occurred 12 months or after afterwards having LEEP, no significant deviation emerged in the rates of miscarriages in people who had the process.

Other Side Furnishings of LEEP

Some women accept reported discomfort during sex activity later a LEEP procedure, including vaginal pain, dryness, and a feeling of painful pressure on the neck.

• The vaginal pain and cervical force per unit area may exist due to narrowing of your cervix after the procedure; this should improve with time as you continue having sex.
• The dryness oft goes away with time. In the meantime, vaginal lubricants can help. Make sure that your healthcare provider says that it'southward safe to employ these products before y'all apply them.

Foreplay and heightened sexual arousal may aid naturally occurring vaginal lubrication and assist relieve discomfort.

Oft Asked Questions

• How soon can I go pregnant afterward having a LEEP?

  Doctors ordinarily recommend that you expect six months later on a LEEP procedure before yous try to conceive. You lot should have a clean bill of wellness from your OBGYN first, though, to be sure the abnormal cells are gone.

• Does having a LEEP bear upon your power to have an orgasm?

  In that location is some research showing that women who accept had a LEEP process lose some ability to orgasm and have less sexual satisfaction. However, more than enquiry is needed to understand how or why this happens and how it can be treated.

• How much do you usually bleed after a LEEP?

  Inside a day or two after the procedure, you'll notice some brownish discharge. This may exist a combination of the solution used during the LEEP and blood. You may go along to have encarmine belch for about four days. Bleeding tin come back and continue as you heal over the next 2 weeks. Contact your healthcare provider if you lot notice claret clots or bleeding that is and so heavy you have to change your pad every hr or 2.

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Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more near how we fact-cheque and go on our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

1. American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP).

2. Ciavattini A, Clemente N, Delli Carpini G, et al. Loop electrosurgical excision procedure and risk of miscarriage. Fertil Steril. 2015;103(4):1043-8. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.12.112

3. Heinonen A, Gissler M, Riska A, Paavonen J, Tapper AM, Jakobsson Grand. Loop electrosurgical excision procedure and the adventure for preterm delivery. Obstet Gynecol. 2013;121(v):1063-8. doi:10.1097/AOG.0b013e31828caa31

4. Johns Hopkins Medicine. Fertility and Pregnancy After a LEEP.

5. Cendejas BR, Smith-McCune KK, Khan MJ. Does treatment for cervical and vulvar dysplasia touch women'south sexual health? American Periodical of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2015;212(3):291-297. doi:10.1016%2Fj.ajog.2014.05.039

6. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. About Your Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure (LEEP).

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Source: https://www.verywellhealth.com/sex-after-leep-581945

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