Last updated: June 4, 2026

At 23, sex started hurting. My doctor's answer was lube and a shrug.

If you've ever Googled "vaginal dryness at 25" or "why am I dry during sex" at 2am with the screen brightness turned all the way down, this is for you.

Words by

Anika Perera

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Published on: June 3. 2026, 2026

I want to tell you something that took me three years to accept: this is common. Wildly, embarrassingly common. And the reason you think you're alone is that nobody talks about it, not your friends, not your GP, and not the internet either, except in anonymous Reddit threads posted at midnight.


I started the pill at 19. By 23, sex hurt. It wasn't dramatic at first, just a tightness that wasn't there before, a friction I chalked up to not being in the mood. I bought lube. It helped for a minute. I told myself this was normal.


By 25 I was avoiding sex entirely and blaming it on work stress, tiredness, headaches, any excuse except the real one. Because the real one felt like something a 60-year-old should be dealing with,

I brought it up to my doctor once. She told me to drink more water and use lube. I didn't bring it up again. not me.


What nobody told me: hormonal contraception can suppress your body's natural lubrication. So can antidepressants. So can stress, breastfeeding, and sometimes absolutely nothing, it just happens. It isn't menopause and it isn't a disease. It's a normal physiological response that more women than you'd ever guess experience and barely any of them talk about.


I know this because I eventually found them, on forums, on Reddit, in the reviews section of a website that showed up during one of my late-night Google spirals.


The website was Katoura, an Australian brand that went viral because it resonated with so many people. I'd never heard of it.


But the reviews on their site were different from anything I'd read on Amazon or at the chemist. They were long and specific, written by women my age describing the exact same timeline: pill, then dryness, then pain, then avoidance, then shame, then silence.


It was like someone had written my story and posted it publicly.

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I ordered the Yoni Pops first because they seemed the least intimidating. They're probiotic suppositories, one before bed, no fragrance, no glycerin, nothing that stings. By the end of the first week, I felt a difference I didn't even know was possible. I didn't feel wet in some dramatic way. I just wasn't dry anymore, or raw, or tight.

Then the Desire Gummies, a daily strawberry supplement. I took them for my libido, but the ashwagandha helps with stress and anxiety too. It wasn't that I'd stopped wanting my partner. My body had learned to associate intimacy with pain, and that association had hardened into genuine dread. Three weeks in, the dread was softer. That's the only way I can describe it.

The Make Him Swim Combo

I eventually got the Make Him Swim Combo: the Pops, Restora Oil (a plant-based external moisturiser), and Drippa Gel (a pH-balanced wash) and Climaxi gel (for her pleasure). The name made me roll my eyes, but the contents changed my life. It arrived in a plain box with no branding on the outside. I unpacked it alone in my bathroom and cried, because someone had finally made something for the exact thing I'd spent three years hiding.

A collection of pink personal care products tied together with a large pink ribbon against a pink background.

I'm not writing this to sell you anything. I'm writing this because I spent three years thinking I was broken, that I was the only 25-year-old dealing with this, that something was fundamentally wrong with me.


There is nothing wrong with you, you are not too young for this, and you are not broken. And you're definitely not the only one.


If you want to try what helped me: katoura.com.au


P.S. I told my best friend about this last month. She stared at me and said, "Wait, that happens to you too?" She'd been dealing with it for two years and hadn't told anyone either. Two women, same friend group, same silence. That's why I'm writing this.

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Featured Product

Katoura

Make Him Swim Combo

$109