How to Ease Pain During Sex While Pregnant
Pain during sex can feel confusing and frustrating, especially when your body is already adapting in so many ways to grow and carry new life. Maybe you’ve asked yourself, “Is this just part of pregnancy?” or felt unsure how to even bring it up with your partner.
If that’s you, please know: you’re not alone. And more importantly, there are real, physical reasons this might be happening.
Let’s take a closer look at why sex might feel painful during pregnancy and what you can do to feel more comfortable, supported, and at home in your body again.
What's Causing Pain During Sex While Pregnant?
When I work with clients navigating discomfort during intimacy, I tend to look at two patterns:
pain during sex and pain after sex.
As your body adapts to support new life, your pelvic floor is doing extraordinary work — holding, lifting, stabilizing. But sometimes that effort builds in ways that create tension, restriction, or imbalance in the fascial, muscular, and visceral systems.
Here are the most common contributors to pain during intimacy:
Pelvic Floor Trigger Points
Just like a tight knot in your shoulder, the pelvic floor muscles can form hyperirritable points that become tender or reactive when stretched, compressed, or touched. These are often linked to stress, misaligned posture, or muscular overuse - all of which are common in pregnancy.
Fascial Restrictions
Your fascia - the connective tissue matrix that integrates your muscles, bones, and organs - must stretch and adapt as your body grows. But when this web gets tight, twisted, or dehydrated, it can pull unevenly across the pelvis, causing discomfort, pain, or a tugging sensation during intimacy.
Organ Shifts & Pressure
As your uterus expands, it can shift the position of nearby organs and increase downward pressure on the vaginal canal. In certain positions, this pressure can intensify, making sex feel heavy, deep, or painful, especially if there’s existing tension or restriction in the pelvic tissues.
What About Pain After Intimacy?
Pain or discomfort after sex is often a signal that your body has moved beyond its current capacity for load, stretch, or impact. The most common reasons for lingering pain include:
Residual Pelvic Guarding
If your body sensed discomfort or threat during intimacy (even subtle), the pelvic floor may stay in a protective holding pattern, clenching instead of releasing. This lingering tension can create soreness, pressure, or a feeling of heaviness after the fact.
Inflammation or Irritation
Pregnancy hormones make your tissues softer and more vascular. Friction or pressure, even when gentle, can lead to micro-irritations that take time to calm. This is especially true if there’s a history of pelvic trauma, chronic tightness, or sensitive scar tissue.
Fascial Recoil
When the fascia is under chronic tension, sudden stretching (even from gentle intimacy) can cause a rebound effect, like overstretched elastic trying to snap back. This may lead to post-activity discomfort or deep ache.
Circulatory Congestion
During pregnancy, your blood volume increases dramatically, but sometimes your circulation can’t keep up. This can lead to vascular pooling in areas like the vulva, perineum, and legs, especially if varicosities are already present.
After intimacy, the increased blood flow and pressure in these areas can take longer to drain, leading to heaviness, throbbing, or dull aching that lingers post-activity. Supporting circulation through movement, positioning, and targeted breathwork can make a meaningful difference here.
These shifts are common, but they are not permanent. Your body is wise and highly responsive to the right kind of support. With thoughtful modifications and deeper awareness, intimacy can remain nurturing, connective, and even more empowering throughout pregnancy.
Supportive Positions for Pain-Free Intimacy During Pregnancy
As your body changes to support new life, increased sensitivity, shifting organ position, and fascial tension can make intimacy more complex. But discomfort during sex isn’t something you have to tolerate. With the right positioning and awareness, intimacy can still feel nourishing, connective, and pain-free.
These positions are often the most supportive for minimizing pelvic floor tension and managing pressure dynamics:
Side-Lying (Spoon) Position
This position reduces gravitational pressure on the abdomen and pelvic organs, while supporting the spine and hips. It encourages gentle contact and allows for slower, less forceful movement, which is often ideal when tissues are more vascular and sensitive during pregnancy.
Modified Woman-on-Top
When the woman is on top, she can control the angle, depth, and rhythm, allowing for micro-adjustments in real time. Placing a bolster or pillows under the knees or behind the back can create more fascial slack and reduce pelvic guarding.
Seated Face-to-Face (Lap Position)
This position supports spinal alignment, maintains eye contact and closeness, and keeps downward pressure off the lower abdomen and pelvic floor. A chair or firm surface can provide grounding and feedback for the nervous system.
Supported All-Fours (Hands and Knees) or Elevated Forward-Leaning Positions
This position can relieve abdominal pressure and allow for deeper pelvic decompression when properly supported. However, it’s important to modify for comfort.
Try elevating the upper body by leaning onto a birth ball, stacked pillows, or the side of the bed. This changes the angle of the pelvis, reduces strain on the wrists and shoulders, and can make the experience more comfortable by distributing weight evenly through the fascial planes.
For some, this position allows more mobility in the hips and sacrum, which can relieve pressure in certain areas, but for others, it may increase strain depending on uterine position or ligament tension. Listening to your body and using props for support are key.
Why These Work
Each of these positions minimizes intra-abdominal pressure, allows for more fascial decompression, and gives the nervous system the sensory safety it needs to downregulate tension. For many women, this leads to less guarding, less pain, and a more connected experience.
The most important guide is always your own body. Pain is a signal - not a barrier - and with awareness, communication, and proper support, intimacy can remain enjoyable throughout pregnancy.
A Path Back to Connection, Comfort, and Confidence
Pain during sex can leave you feeling disconnected from your body, your partner, even yourself. It’s easy to wonder, “What’s wrong with me?” But your body isn’t broken. She’s communicating.
With the right support, this pain can shift.
Inside The Core Recovery Method®, I guide you through a gentle, step-by-step process to restore balance, release tension, and rebuild trust in your pelvic floor so intimacy no longer feels like something you have to brace for.
Through guided breathwork, hypopressives, fascial release, and therapeutic movement, you’ll begin to:
- Rebalance the pelvis and relieve deep muscular holding
- Reconnect with your core, your breath, and your sense of safety
- Reclaim intimacy, confidence, and a felt sense of home in your body
This work supports optimal and automatic pelvic floor coordination, efficient pressure management, and improved circulation to the pelvic tissues, all of which contribute to less pain, more ease, and deeper connection.
You don’t have to override your body to feel better. She’s wise, responsive, and ready to guide you. This is your invitation to listen and support as your body works a miracle!
As the tension patterns unravel and your nervous system feels safe again, you may begin to notice:
- Your breath flows deeper, your posture softens, and what once felt like discomfort begins to feel like ease.
- The sensations of pressure, burning, or discomfort during sex start to fade, because your pelvic floor is no longer overcompensating or stuck in defense.
- You feel more grounded, centered, and supported, not just in your body, but in your sense of self.
True healing begins with trust and safety. When your body no longer feels the need to brace or protect, it can begin to soften, release, and respond again. The Core Recovery Method® supports this process by helping your body remember how to move and heal with ease.
