Female urethra dilation: things you should know before you meet your urologist in 2025

Introduction of urethral dilation in female: 30 causes of painful intercourse

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female genitourinary system

Urethra dilation is a delicate medical procedure done underanesthesis by a urologist or urosurgeon. The procedure is done after careful evaluation and by well trained professionals. Before going deeper into female urethra dilation lets review anatomy of female urethra in brief.

Urethral structure if pathological narrowing of urethra due to different reasons leading to difficulty passing urine and various other symptoms and consequences.

Anatomy of female urethra

Female urethra is tubular musculocutaneous organelle situation in genital region of female that connects bladder to the outer world. The urethra carries urine from bladder to the outside. The flow of urine from bladder is controlled by two valves viz. Internal and external urethral valves. The internal urethral valve is controlled by autonomic nervous system while external is under voluntary control. The overall length of fenale urethra is 4 centimetres or 1.5 inches.

(Source: Textbook of anatomy 7e, Moore et al. )

Female urinary system anatomy

Indications of urethral dilation : an introduction

Stricture
Trauma
Prostate problems
Adhesion
Mass effect
Pelvic organs prolapse

(Source: Uptodate.com)

Sex after female urethra dilation

Sexual intercourse after female urrthra dilatation may become difficult rarely. Difficult or painful sexual intercourse is called dysparaunia and it may have several other causes including vaginal infection, dry vagina and many more listed as below.

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Causes of painful sexual intercourse

Painful sexual intercourse or dyspareunia can be because of external genital problems to internal vaginal, uterine or pelvic disorders. Urethra also being near vagina can be the reason for dyspareunia where as other nearby organs and structures can also be part of it. It is also called genitopelvic pain. The causes of painful intercourse can be listed as below:

Vulvovaginal atrophy
Endometriosis
Physical assault
Sexual assaults
Emotional and mental trauma
Abuse
Gastrointestinal causes
Constipation
Vulvar skin atrophy
Vulvar cancer
Lichen
Condyloma, HPV
Fibromyalgia
Musculoskeletal
Vulvodynia
Vaginismus
Vestibulodynia
Vulvitis
Vaginitis
Adenomyosis
Uterine fibroids
PID /infection
Pelvic adhesive disease
Ovarian mass
Diabetes
Thyroid disorders
Vitamin deficiency
Hormone imbalance (estrogen, progesterone)
Cancers

(Source: Medscape.com)

Anatomy of female urinary system

Extreme female urethra dilation

The flow of urine from bladder is controlled by two valves viz. Internal and external urethral valves. The internal urethral valve is controlled by autonomic nervous system while external is under voluntary control.

Extreme female urethra dikagyrefers to dilating urethra above the normal anatomical diameter as expected of that age.

This will be done in case of following indications