Women's health
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The purpose of this paper is to examine how well research findings on dyspareunia (intercourse pain) fit the fear-avoidance (FA) model on pain. ⋯ The results demonstrate the relevance of the FA model in sexual pain. They also imply that treatment methods for fear and avoidance in other pain conditions offer new avenues for treating sexual pain problems in the clinic. Future studies should focus on expanding how the mechanisms in the FA model contribute to sexual pain, as well as how treatments based on the model may be applied clinically.