For women, it’s time to see your doctor if you have sexual pain and:

  • Tenderness or swelling in your lower abdomen, possibly accompanied by a hard mass that can be felt through your skin
  • Upset stomach
  • Symptoms of anemia (fatigue, paleness, shortness of breath)
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Deepening of your voice and excessive growth of body hair

This combination of symptoms could indicate ovar­ian cancer.

  • Feeling ill generally
  • Low-grade fever
  • Pain in your lower abdomen, on one or both sides
  • Bad-smelling discharge from your vagina
  • Painful, frequent urination

If you have these symptoms, you may have pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), an infection of your reproductive organs.

  • Constant dryness of your mouth, nose, and eyes
  • Vaginal dryness that makes intercourse painful
  • Painful, achy joints

These symptoms may point to Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder.

  • Genital itching
  • Yellowish discharge
  • Painful urination

If you have the above symptoms, you may have urethritis, which is an inflammation of your ure­thra that is usually transmitted sexually.

  • Painful, burning, or frequent urination
  • Bloody, bad-smelling urine
  • Pain in your lower abdomen and lower back
  • Low-grade fever

With these symptoms, you may have cystitis, a bladder infection.

  • Pain and itching in and around your vagina
  • Painful or burning urination
  • Bad-smelling discharge from your vagina

This combination of symptoms probably means you have vaginitis, an inflammation or infection of the vagina. It can be caused by a fungal infection, a tiny parasite, an overgrowth of the bacteria that normally live in the vagina, an allergic reaction, or the thinning and drying of the vaginal lining after menopause.

  • A lump in the front or back of your vagina, or sticking out from it
  • Uncomfortable urination
  • A backache that gets worse when you lift some­thing
  • Discomfort in your pelvis
  • Difficulty with bowel movements

This could signal a condition called uterine pro­lapse, which means the muscles holding your uterus have weakened and allowed the uterus to bulge down into your vagina.