Welcome to my virtual therapy room!  I am Dr Lori Beth Bisbey and this is Sex Spoken Here.  As this podcast contains adult material, if you don’t have total privacy you might want to wear headphones. 
Today I am starting a series on the care and feeding of your vagina. 
The vagina is a wonderfully complex organ that can provide us with great pleasure.  It experiences many changes through the lifespan and surprisingly many women (and men) know little about what to expect.  In this series, I will be looking at issues from cleanliness to periods to childbirth to menopause and beyond. 
Joining me today is Bonnie Gayle, body image expert and the founder of Sex Butter.   She educates on feeling comfortable and confident in and with your body as well as vaginal and sexual health.  It’s all an inside job.  Her product, sex butter, is a sexually empowering pleasure enhancement and personal lubricant made with organic plant-based oils infused with messages of love and healing.  Bonnie’s experience being thrown into a traumatic menopause overnight caused many challenges with her sex life when walking around became dry and painful.  At the age of 41, Bonnie was diagnosed with vaginal atrophy which she healed holistically with her product Sex Butter and a jade egg.  Now Bonnie teaches vaginal and sexual health to women worldwide.
Hi Bonnie!  Let’s start with a definition of vaginal atrophy.
Bonnie explained that all muscles atrophy or shrink when not used and the vagina is no different.  We talked about the fact that even if you are doing Kegel exercises (which we explained), this may not be enough.  We talked about stress incontinence and the fact that that whole band of muscles and ligaments supports not only the vagina but also the bladder. 
Bonnie talked about her experience with traumatic menopause and how much atrophy hurt.  She spoke of healing by using a jade egg which she slept with every night and sex butter.  She described it taking about three months for her to be comfortable again and said that now she uses the jade egg about once per week and still uses the sex butter.
We spoke about the antibacterial and antifungal properties of the formulation.  All the ingredients are organic.  We talked about the soothing properties of peppermint as well as the ability peppermint must jump start libido. 
We talked about the problems women experience with their vaginas across the lifespan and highlighted the myth that problems happen primarily from menopause and beyond.
Bonnie talked about how many women have never looked at their own vaginas and have no idea what a normal vagina looks like.  I highlighted the fact that if you don’t know what is normal for you, you won’t be able to recognise when changes occur that might signal illness or injury.  Bonnie spoke about the need for self-love and self-acceptance and how many women are disconnected from their vaginas.  We spoke about the increase in labiaplasty and our concerns that women aren’t learning about pleasure and are still learning to value their looks and presentation above their own pleasure.
Bonnie can be found:
http://sexbutter.net (http://sexbutter.net)
http://openingpandorasbox.com
https://www.facebook.com/sexbutter/
https://twitter.com/theBonnieGayle
Bonnie is offering listeners 10% off your first order with the coupon SB10.  She invites women who have questions or are using her products to contact her at sexbutter@gmail.com.
Thanks for joining me this week for Sex Spoken Here with Dr Lori Beth Bisbey.  Write to me with suggestions for the show, questions you want answered at drbisbey@the-intimacy-coach.com, follow me on twitter @drbisbey and check out my YouTube channel.  For a free 30 minute strategy session with me, go to www.the-intimacy-coach.com and click the button that says Schedule Now!  If you are curious and ready to explore more, enjoy me for my webinar/telecall 4 Secrets for Arousing and Igniting Your Authentic Sexual Self ....