AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: It’s not fun to be aroused all the time. Would you want to have a raging
boner 24/7? I don’t think so. It’s just non-stop.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: PGAD is a Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder. Feels like you are about
to orgasm and then it never goes away. So, its sharp pains all the way through your legs,
all the way through your pelvic. It’s just non-stop.
COMM: 23-year-old Amanda was diagnosed with Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder or PGAD
in 2013. For years neither she nor her mother, Victoria, knew what was wrong with her.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: When I was like 13-14, is when I first started noticing there is
something wrong. No one ever believed me. I kept saying, like, ‘I need to have sex.
I need to orgasm.’ Like, when I was 15-18 stage, I, like, I masturbated way more than
a normal teenager would.
VICTORIA ENRIQUEZ: I first noticed that something was wrong with Amanda when she first became
sexually active. She was having sex a lot. I didn’t know what it was. My whole family
thought that she was just
a whore.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: Everyone thought that it was just, like, a sex addiction. If I could
go the rest of my life without having orgasm, I would. That’s fine.
VICTORIA ENRIQUEZ: Honestly, back then I was frustrated because I started to think that
she was just a hypochondriac. I doubted her completely. I still feel guilty.
Your child is telling you that they are in pain. And the doctor is telling you that basically
it is nothing. And I believed the doctor over my daughter.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: Some days I do okay and then some days, I don’t want to be around anyone.
I don’t want anyone to look at me. I don’t usually leave my house as it is.
But, I mean, I don’t even want to be on social media. I don’t want to do anything.
VICTORIA ENRIQUEZ: It was a huge relief when we found out that it was PGAD because then
there was something. There was validation that she is not lying, that she is not making
all this stuff up, that she is not a whore, that she is not a sex addict.
COMM: At home, Amanda now has the support of her fiancé JoJo. The pair met a year ago
and have been inseparable ever since.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: He takes care of me on days that I can’t move, on days that I am
like having full on panic attacks because of how much pain I am in. Relationships are very
hard to keep and with this problem. He never once has judged me. He never made me feel
bad about not working or anything like that. When they say love at first sight, it really was.
JOJO FELLER: When she first told me, I didn’t know how to feel about it. But I liked her.
So, I was prepared to, basically, jump in. The more I could learn, the more I can help her.
I will go with her to every appointment, injections. I will help her so she gets anything
she needs.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: It affects our sex life quite tremendously. Actually, you would think
that you would just have sex and it would go away. It doesn’t. And some times I will
literally be crying, begging him to just have sex with me. Just to relieve some of the pressure
that I have down there. And, so when you are begging your man for sex, it’s kind of difficult.
Because then it makes you feel like crap, like, ‘Oh, why don’t you want me?’
Even though you know that’s not what it is.
JOJO FELLER: I told her. I was like, ‘I don’t want sex to feel like a chore. I want
it to be something special,’ which is why, we kind of cut back on it.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: I sit on an ice pack. Sometimes ice doesn’t help though. So then I have
to go to the heating pad. And then sometimes the heating pad doesn’t help. So I have
to go back to ice. I have ice inserts that I can stick inside me to help with swelling.
COMM: Dr Gupta at Michigan University is treating Amanda, who now takes 30 different medications
to try and ease her pain.
DR PRIYANKA GUPTA: Because it’s such a rare diagnosis and there’s been so little research,
we don’t know exactly what causes it. We suspect that it’s multi-factorial from you
know, several different issues. Amanda and I have talked some about the fact that I don’t
have, kind of a quick cure to this. But that we are going to be trying a few different therapies.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: I just wish the name was different. Because the arousal disorder part
makes it sound, like, you are aroused. Like, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s awesome.’ It’s really
not fun at all.
DR PRIYANKA GUPTA: I don’t know if we have a cure yet. But I definitely think that we
have not exhausted our treatment options. I am very hopeful that we can get Amanda
better and get her functioning better.
AMANDA MCLAUGHLIN: My whole life would be different if I didn’t have this problem.
If I wasn’t in pain all the time: I might be able to work, I might be able to drive.
I want kids in the future. My whole life would be different. I know I would be happier.