"I COULDN'T HAVE SEX - AT ALL"

Tara Little, 20, couldn't consummate her marriage due to a rare disorder - vaginismus. Here, the story of her sexual recovery.
On Tara Little's wedding night in May 2000, she tried to lose her virginity to her husband, Michael-and found out she couldn't because she had vaginismus, a psychophysical reaction that causes the pelvic muscles to contract, making penetration impossible or painful. (It is often caused by negative associations with sex, or, as with Little, a strict religious upbringing.) Little sought treatment at the Women's Therapy Center in Plainview, New York, where Ditza Katz, a urogynecologic physical therapist and sex therapist, and Ross Lynn Tabisel, a psychotherapist and sex therapist, counseled her and, using a process called guided insertion, helped her insert a vaginal spacer. Eight days later, she and Michael booked a hotel room nearby. "It was Valentine's Day," she recalls. "It was amazing to finally have sex-we cried and held each other all night."