US woman feels 'persistent' arousal due to rare medical condition

The 21-year-old suffers from Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD), where an individual feels unpredictable, uncontrollable physical sensations linked to sexual arousal, but it is in the absence of desire.

A woman based in Barrington, US is battling a rare condition which is medically termed Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD) — that frequently leaves her suffering with "uncontrolled arousals". From age six to 21, Scarlet Kaitlin Wallen underwent a series of treatments and surgeries seeking a cure for her medical condition.

Scarlet started sensing the initial symptoms of PGAD at the age of six. She told the New York Post that she felt severe "pins and needles" at frequent intervals in her private area which she continued to suffer till age 13 while also battling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). These conditions left Scarlet uncomfortable for prolonged years as a result of which she also faced challenges in attending her classes or work.

Scarlet, who now is 21, said she did get brief relief from the PGAD pain at age 15 when she used Vaporub on her genitals that helped her to distract her mind from the severity of the pain. However, using such ointments only led to side effects like thrush.

Narrating her painful journey, Scarlet told the Post: “By 18, I was quite certain my body was attacking me. So I wrote a letter to my parents. I didn’t want to tell them face to face but it was getting so bad, I couldn’t hide it from them anymore. I wrote that I had this non-stop nerve pain that wasn’t even pain, it was worse. I told them it was something I had no control over.”

Surgeries Scarlet underwent to escape the PGAD pain

The San Diego Sexual Medicine Clinic where Scarlet's parents took her for treatment discovered a series of past surgeries that she had undergone.

The antidepressants Scarlet used to take for OCD had led to numbness in her genitals. She was further diagnosed with post SSRI sexual dysfunction, again, caused by the antidepressants. The doctors on further observations found another condition— congenital neuroproliferative vestibulodynia, that increases the sensitivity to touch in the pelvic nerves. In order to reduce such a sensation, Scarlet had already undergone a procedure wherein few of her genital nerves were removed.

It wasn't the end of complications yet. The surgeons later also found that she underwent a surgery to remove the septate vagina wall in 2023 from which she had recovered in a week only to undergo vestibulectomy on September 8, 2023 in which only parts of the painful tissue in her genital area were removed.

While Scarlet hopes that she would some day get relief from the pain, she told the Post: "I was told there was a significant possibility I wouldn’t be able to feel any sort of natural sexual arousal again if I had all of it removed— due to my post-SSRI sexual dysfunction. I still want to have a sexual relationship, but my choice is currently between living with PGAD or being completely numb. I’m just hopeful that one day I’ll be able to live a normal life."