Painful sex at one year, sorted by how badly you tore
One in four women with no tear or a small one. More than one in two after a severe tear. A full year later.
This is the table that women are almost never shown, and it is the one most likely to change what a woman concludes about herself.
554 women in Denmark, all having a first baby, were sorted by how much damage was done to the perineum. They were examined and asked about sex twelve months later.
| What happened to the perineum | Painful sex at 12 months |
|---|---|
| No tear, a labial tear, or a first-degree tear | 25% |
| Second-degree tear | 38% |
| Third- or fourth-degree tear (through the anal sphincter) | 53% |
Those percentages are the plain risk, not a comparison. One woman in four with little or no damage still has pain a year on. After a severe tear, it is more than half. Adjusting for other differences, women with a second-degree tear were about twice as likely to report pain as women in the first group, and women with a third- or fourth-degree tear about twice as likely as well.
This is one study, in one country, in women having a first baby, at one point in time. It does not tell you what happens at eighteen months or after a second birth. It does tell you that a year is not long, and that the size of the tear is a real and knowable thing that changes the odds.
"Given that degree, what proportion of women still have pain at a year?"
"Sex still hurts. I would like to be examined, not reassured."