"Not necessarily. Many a time you may experience painful sex on account of genuine medical conditions such as multiple childbirths or surgery of your reproductive organs," informs Dr. Shagufta Ansari, Prince Aly Khan Hospitals, Mumbai.

Here are some conditions that can cause you to have painful sex or have a low sex drive.

1. Childbirth

Lovemaking may seem less pleasurable and you may not feel the need for it for at least six months post pregnancy.

Vaginal delivery is painful for most women. The vaginal tissues are strained, bruised or torn during childbirth. It takes few weeks for these injuries to heal. Therefore, vaginal intercourse could be painful or less intense as the muscles tend to get loose due to the extreme stretching during delivery.

Moreover, childbirth involves hormonal and emotional changes. This can leave you feeling less sexy for quite some time post delivery.

Apart from that, immediately after birth of your child, the sensitivity of the genital organs is reduced. Thus it could take longer for you to get adequate lubrication.

Resuming Sex

You should not have penetrative sex for six weeks or until after your post natal check-up. This is because the check-up will determine whether the stitches, if you had a tear have healed properly.

If you are still feeling sore, your gynaecologist will advise you to wait for some more time. To tighten your vaginal muscles you can do kegels or any other pelvic floor exercises.

2. Surgery

If you have undergone any vaginal surgery or tests such as vaginal tightening or an HSG test or laparoscopy, it can cause vaginal dryness and soreness.

The soreness will remain until the scar or the tissue heals completely. There is also a drop in the hormonal levels which eventually results in vaginal dryness, thus creating sexual discomfort.

Apart from the surgical scar, the discomfort can also be attributed to the drugs that can increase the vaginal dryness.

Resuming Sex

If the reason happens to be a surgical test like HSG or laparoscopy, then you will have discomfort for a brief period of time. You will be advised to resume sex only after a week or two.

However, in case of surgery it may take at least a month and a half before you can resume penetrative sex.

3. Hysterectomy

Post hysterectomy vaginal lubrication will decrease. Hysterectomy also results in low and nearly undetectable levels of testosterone (the hormone responsible for sexual arousal in both men and women).

Apart from that, hysterectomy causes you to reach menopause early, low sex drive is a given.

Resuming Sex

A low sex drive could also be due to low self esteem because of loss of reproductive capacity. Wait for at least two to three weeks before resuming sex.

However, resume gentle sex post three weeks. This will ensure that the scar at the vaginal incision does not become hard, or else it can make sex extremely painful.

Although it may take more than three months for the scar to be completely healed, it is advisable to resume normal sex post one month.