His and Her Health

Does anyone have an rough idea of how much a vestibulectomy surgergy costs? Since I would probably have to travel out of my state, it would be out of network for my insurance, so I'm wondering how much I have to save up for it.
Tasha

I had to meet a $300 deductible and then my insurance paid 80% after that. After the deductible I owed about $600 (That's 20% of what the surgery cost, minus my deductible, and what I had to pay the dr.) It will easily cost a few thousand dollars. But, I'm sure it depends on where you go, and who performs the surgery.

Best of luck to you!!

I am getting the vestibulectomy and the dr. bill will be 5000 not including hospital.

I had a vestibulectomy in 2003. I believe that the surgeon's fee was $3500. I had to fight hard with my insurance company (Aetna, at the time) afterwards, but eventually they paid 80% of my surgery fee. Be prepared to inundate them with documentation describing the surgery and the necessity of this particular surgery -- as opposed to a different form of treatment. There was also some huge question related to how the surgery was coded. I'm afraid I don't remember the particulars very well, but it was something like the code specified was too general and limited the dollar amount the insurance company was willing to pay, which is why I had to fight with them and provide all the extra information. As I recall, I never saw a bill for the related fees -- anesthesia, hospital fees. I think insurance paid for them entirely.

My HMO didn't pay for anything plus I had airfare for me & hubby, and 3-week hotel stay for recovering. The total for surgery including travel came to $12K which was put on several credit cards.

Lauren, Nifty, and Hapa -

Are you satisfied with the results of your surgery? How long ago did you have it? I am also a candidate and have some fears about going forward with a vestibulectomy - was wondering if you have had improvement/complete resolution of pain since having the surgery, and would recommend it to others...? If you have any regrets and are dissatsfied with any aspects, what are they?

Thank you!!

I am now 4 months out from my surgery. A month ago I got the ok from my doctor to have intercourse. I now have pain-free intercourse. It's kind of weird at first because I'm like, Wow this doesn't hurt. But it's nice not being in pain!!!! So, overall, I am very satisfied with my surgery!!

That's great - and very encouraging!

Hello again,

Would really love to talk to you further Lauren, Nifty and Hapa (and anyone else who had a vestibulectomy) offline, if possible, about your surgeries, but the e-mail feature didn't seem to work when I tried it over the summer, and now I don't see the option anymore. (To the Moderator: is the feature still available? How can posters connect offline?) In any case, I'm still a candidate for a vestibulectomy, but have been trying every other treatment I can find out there first bc the prospect of surgery frightens me. Of course, nothing else seems to be working and it seems that I'm heading toward surgery. I'm quite nervous about the possibility of the pain worsening afterward if something goes wrong or I don't heal properly, about having a procedure done that some doctors call "disfiguring," about the risk of developing cysts that would need to be drained, etc. - the list goes on. Can anyone speak to these fears or others that you may have had about having the surgery, and how you would look at everything in restrospect if you knew then what you know now? Does everyone still feel good about having had the surgery? Any complications? Has anyone given birth since having the surgery? Thank you!

If the person you wish to contact has put their e-mail address in their profile you can use that. Not every one puts an address in their profile.

Thanks - but, I've put my e-mail address in, yet it doesn't come up when I click on my own profile even though I checked the "yes" box about allowing contact...? So, if I ask someone to e-mail me, how will they be able to? Any revisions I can make? Thank you.

to AC73-did you ever have your surgery??i see that your post was awhile ago but I am wondering how things went. I just got diagnosed last week and I am researching the internet since I have been told I should have the surgery as well. very scared and nervous it wont work, I could have writen your posting! Please let me know how things went if you had it and fell free to click my link and email or call!

My surgery was in January 2003. I don't regret it at all. I haven't actually had sex since my surgery, due to a bad marriage, divorce and some other things, but I can use a vibrator without any pain. When I masturbate, I take things very slowly during initial penetration and use lots of lube, and there's no pain. A tiny bit of discomfort at first and that's it. (I remember when I had the surgery that my doctor and I discussed how the goal of the surgery was to reduce the pain. Sure, eliminating the pain would be great and ideal, but I was feeling pain during penetration at about a 7-9 level, and our goal was to get the pain down to a 0-3 level. I feel we were successful with that.)

As far as being disfigured, I don't think I was disfigured at all. Maybe I don't remember what I looked like down there before, but when I grab a mirror now and take a look, it all looks pretty normal to me. I think that right in the opening of the vagina it maybe looks a little weird, but not much, and it's hard for me to say what's "weird" and what's "normal." I really don't have much basis for comparison, as I've never seen another woman's vulva and don't have a picture of my own vulva pre-op. For me the more significant point is just that I can have penetration without pain.

I had no complications from the surgery whatsoever. One of the things I always hear is horror stories related to the Bartholin glands. I don't even know how those apply to me. There's no mention of them anywhere in my operative report. I don't think mine were removed, but I'm not sure. I can tell you that my surgery was performed with a scapel and not a laser, and I sometimes wonder if that made a difference. (Seems like many of the horror stories I'd read online were about vestibulectomies performed with a laser.)

I am DEFINITELY glad I had the surgery and have no problem recommending it as an option to others if their situation calls for it. (I had primary VVS...my pain was very localized -- to the opening of my vagina -- and I only had pain during penetration. I didn't have any of the other symptoms or conditions of vulvodynia.) I have no regrets.

My doctor was Dr. Goldstein, and I recommend him to any woman who is dealing with this problem.

nifty, thanks so much for your positive post! my VV is secondary post childbirth but is also just on contact so i am hoping to have a successful surgery after suffering for 5 years. i poted a note to you on a differnet posting that i would like to hear your surgical report if you are ok with that so if you are able to contact me from my link, i would greatly appreciate it! thanks again for letting us know how you did! Stacy

Lauren:
I read your reply about surgery. Yours sounded successful. I am also in SC and I am not sure if you can tell me the name of your doctor or not on here, but if there is a specialist in SC can you tell me the city?