Right. I've been sitting here for twenty minutes trying to work out how to word this and I keep deleting it. I'm 58 and I've been with my husband for thirty-one years. Thirty-one. And I cannot for the life of me find the words to tell him that sex has become genuinely painful. Not uncomfortable. Painful. I just sort of... go quiet and hope he doesn't notice and then feel awful about it afterwards for multiple reasons. I've got a GP appointment next week and I've been scribbling down notes on my phone because I know I'll get in there and my brain will go completely blank. What I'm trying to say to the doctor is something like: dryness that's got worse over the past year, pain during sex, and something that feels almost like a UTI afterwards even when it isn't one. I looked it up and I think the term I want is GSM? I wrote it down so I don't forget to actually say it out loud rather than just hinting and hoping she picks it up. The appointment feels manageable. It's the conversation with my husband that doesn't. Has anyone actually found the words for that bit? Not the doctor bit, the other bit. x