Vulvodynia During Pregnancy: Notes for Prenatal Visits

Updated 10 October 2026

Vulvar pain that is already part of life can change during pregnancy, and pain that appears for the first time can show up in the same months. Prenatal visits are full of other topics, so pain notes are easy to leave out unless you have written them down.

This guide sets out what ACOG, NICHD, Cleveland Clinic, the National Vulvodynia Association and the Vulval Pain Society say about vulvodynia and pregnancy, then offers a table of the statements, a week-by-week pain record, a list of words, four steps and a one-page summary for prenatal visits. It records what you notice and when. A clinician decides what any symptom means for you, and nothing here advises on treatment or says what will happen in your pregnancy.

What ACOG, NICHD, Cleveland Clinic, the NVA and the Vulval Pain Society say about vulvodynia and pregnancy

The Vulval Pain Society, a UK patient organization, says on its pregnancy page that women can develop vulvodynia during or just after pregnancy. It adds that some women with vulvodynia who get pregnant can notice their symptoms get worse or better, and reminds readers that everyone's pain is individual, so what happens to one woman will not necessarily happen to another.

On what vulvodynia is, the other pages agree. ACOG says vulvodynia is pain that lasts for 3 months or longer with an infection, skin disorder or other medical condition ruled out as the cause. Cleveland Clinic describes it as pain lasting three or more months with no obvious specific condition behind it. The National Vulvodynia Association describes its mission as helping women suffering from vulvodynia, chronic vulvar pain without an identifiable cause.

NICHD says the main symptom of vulvodynia is pain, but it can also cause burning, stinging, irritation or rawness of the vulva and itching, soreness or throbbing. Those words give a useful base vocabulary for a pregnancy diary.

Together the pages describe a pain with no single course through pregnancy: it can start, worsen or ease, and individual experience varies. None of them says what will happen to a given person, and this guide does not either. That variation is the reason notes by week are useful, because they let your prenatal team see your own pattern instead of an average.

Questions for your prenatal team about vulvar pain can be saved in the Daily Journal of Vulvodynia Journey (by Health Journey Labs), so they are ready when you are in the room.

The definitions and the pregnancy statements: what each source covers

Most of these pages define vulvodynia, and one speaks about pregnancy. The table separates the two kinds of statement.

Pregnancy statements table, by Vulvodynia Journey

The table shows that one source speaks about pregnancy and the others define the condition. The pregnancy statements come with a note of caution, saying that experience is individual, and the definitions agree on three months of pain without a clear cause.

For a person keeping notes, the practical lesson is that what the sources can tell you about pregnancy is limited and general, and your own weeks supply the specifics. Notes made with dates and weeks of pregnancy are what a prenatal team can use. The guide to sleeping with vulvodynia when pain disturbs the night may be useful for the sleep entries that often come up in pregnancy.

Tests ordered during pregnancy, with their result dates, fit in My Labs of Vulvodynia Journey, so they sit in one list beside your pain entries.

Pain notes by week of pregnancy: a record with words and dates

One row for each entry lets a prenatal clinician follow your pain through the months. The columns use the words the sources list and leave room for your own.

Table of pain by pregnancy week, by Vulvodynia Journey

Write the week of pregnancy beside the date, since a prenatal team thinks in weeks. Use plain words for the pain, such as the burning, stinging, irritation, rawness, soreness or throbbing that NICHD lists. Note what it did to your day in a few words, and add context in your own phrasing. You choose how much to write about private matters.

Keep each entry brief, since a sore day is a poor time for long writing. Even one line with the week and a word for the pain is a useful entry. After a few weeks of pregnancy, read down the rows. A prenatal team may see a stretch of quiet weeks, a rise at a particular stage or a pattern linked to certain activities. Dates and events are what the record offers, and the clinician who examines you decides what they mean. The guide to preparing for a short vulvodynia doctor visit covers keeping an appointment brief.

Each column above has a home in Vulvodynia Journey: the Daily check-in for pain words and effect on the day, the Flare Tracker for a day clearly worse than usual and the Daily Journal for context.

Words for pain in pregnancy: what to call it and how it changes

A short list of words keeps your descriptions steady from one prenatal visit to the next, and makes change easier to spot.

Words for pain in pregnancy

Vulvodynia Journey offers words for pain in pregnancy.

• Feeling words: burning, stinging, irritation, rawness, itching, soreness, throbbing.
• Change words: new, worse, better, the same, comes and goes.
• Effect words: sitting was hard, walking was fine, cut the day short, slept badly.
• Timing words: morning, evening, after sitting, after a visit, at night.
• Anything else: whatever fits, in your own phrasing.

Choose the words that match your experience and write them with the date and week. If you are unsure a word is right, put it in quotation marks as a reminder that it was a best guess.

The feeling words come from the NICHD page, and the change words follow the Vulval Pain Society's description of symptoms getting worse or better. A clinician may prefer other terms and will say so. Using the same words each time makes a change visible, and a change word with a date is a good prompt for a question at the next visit. If you already had vulvodynia before pregnancy, a line saying how the pain usually behaved gives the prenatal team a baseline to compare against. The guide to explaining a vulvodynia hard week to your partner can help if someone close wants to understand the words.

Feeling words and change words can be typed into the Daily Journal of Vulvodynia Journey with the date, so your team hears them as you chose them.

Four steps to prepare for a prenatal visit with pain notes

Prenatal visits have many topics and little time. Four steps help your pain notes take a short, clear place among them.

Steps before a prenatal visit with pain notes

These steps, written by Vulvodynia Journey, track pain by week of pregnancy for the prenatal visit.

1. Keep the pain record by week of pregnancy, including the quiet days.
2. Underline the entries that show a change, such as new, worse or better.
3. Write a three-line summary: how the pain felt, how it changed and what it did to your days.
4. Open with your question about labor and delivery, for example what can be planned if exams or pressure are painful.

From Vulvodynia Journey, we recommend finishing the summary the day before the visit (Vulvodynia Journey checklist), so the latest week is on the page.

If more than one clinician is involved in your care, bring the same page to each and write the date of each visit at the top. Each can then see what the other has been told, and you avoid retelling the history at every appointment.

Keep the summary short. A page with the key weeks and the three lines is easier to read than a full diary, and the diary stays available for anyone who asks to go further back. If you wish, say at the start that you would like a few minutes for the pain, so the clinician can plan the time.

Shortly before the appointment, Vulvodynia Journey shows pain words, weeks and change notes in one history, so the three lines come from entries you already made.

One page for your prenatal clinician: pain by week, changes and questions

A single page lets a clinician see how the pain has behaved through the months without leafing through notes.

One page for your prenatal clinician, by Vulvodynia Journey

• The weeks of pregnancy covered and how many entries you made.
• The words that fit the pain, from your list.
• Changes, with the week each one began.
• What the pain did to your days, in a few words.
• Anything else a clinician said, with the date.
• Two or three questions for this visit.

Pass the page across as the visit opens and ask to go through it together. If a clinician suggests a plan, add it to the page with the date, so it travels with you to the next visit. Make a copy to keep and write the answers on it, with the clinician's name.

The page records what you noticed. How the pain relates to your pregnancy, how any exam or birth will be planned and what to do next are for your clinicians to decide, and the sources here say that experience is individual. A clear record of your own weeks is what you can contribute, and it remains useful whatever the answers turn out to be.

At the visit, the Doctor Report in Vulvodynia Journey puts weeks, pain words and changes on one page, and My Care Team holds what each clinician said.

How Vulvodynia Journey can help

A pain record by week of pregnancy on a sheet of paper is enough to begin. If you want pain words, weeks and changes in one dated history, the best vulvodynia apps guide compares the options.

Vulvodynia Journey is a personal vulvodynia tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. Prenatal visits move quickly, and a page of dated notes keeps the pain from being forgotten. Weeks, words and dates, written as they happen, leave the planning to your team. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.

• Daily check-in — Logs physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, external factors; app-specific items: pain quality, sitting or clothing triggers, intimacy or exam context when you choose to note it, how the day limited you; read together with the rest of the logged history.
• Daily Journal — Logs free-text notes, voice entry; app-specific items: what the day limited, tampon or pad choice, exam after-effects, partner talks, visit debriefs, leftover shame after a dismissive comment, a look-fine mismatch line; read together with scores and other logged history (adds context).
• Flare Tracker — Logs flag a day clearly worse than the usual hard week, onset, intensity, short note; app-specific items: pain, sitting intolerance, touch sensitivity; read together with history across weeks (one-off spike vs repeating pattern).
• My Meds — Logs medicine names, timing, dose; app-specific items: topical or oral options you already use as directed; read together with pain weeks, sleep, the rest of the tracked history.
• My Labs — Logs result dates; app-specific items: swabs, cultures, other tests; read together with ongoing pain and function.
• Weekly Goals — Logs one small aim, whether it held; read together with real check-ins.
• Learn — Logs short education topics, prompts; app-specific items: pain patterns, pacing, visit prep, why a clear swab can still be clinically relevant; read together with your own logged weeks.
• AI companions — Logs Clara (general chat), specialist companions; app-specific items: knowledge, fitness, nutrition, relationships; read together with your logged history (companions already see it); used for: visit wording; a calm partner script; a soft rain-check line; a listening ear after a hard pain day.
• My Care Team — Logs clinicians, short visit notes; app-specific items: tends to treat every visit as infection until proven otherwise; read together with logged history; used for: visit prep (what to ask and bring); notes during the visit; review afterward.
• Doctor Report — Logs one-page summary exported from logged history; app-specific items: dates, pain, triggers, function, what you tried; read together with the history already logged; visit type: gyn.
• My Assessments — Logs structured check-ins beyond daily scores, onboarding life and social context; read together with ongoing history.
• Food Tracker — Logs meal or drink lines.
• Period Tracker — Logs start and stop dates, flow, how heavy or light bleeding felt; read together with pain, sleep, flare, everything else logged.
• Weight Tracker — Logs scale or body notes; read together with the rest of the logged history.

Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.

Sources

• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Vulvodynia
• NICHD, National Institutes of Health: Vulvodynia
• Cleveland Clinic: Vulvodynia
• National Vulvodynia Association: About us
• The Vulval Pain Society: Pregnancy and vulval pain

FAQ

The answers below draw on the sources cited in this guide, and the app they mention is Vulvodynia Journey (by Health Journey Labs).