“Lady Parts” features our main character, Paige, who has been living in Los Angeles for the past 5 years, paying her dues in hopes of becoming a screenwriter. Although she is just days away from securing a writer’s assistant position, she has put off her issues with vaginal pain for too long. After broken relationships due to painful sex, and multiple doctors unable to give a correct diagnosis, Paige finally finds the top specialist in the city. The price of the initial appointment forces Paige to call her parents, Linda and Steve, for financial help. Soon, Paige’s sexual health becomes a family affair when her parents show up unannounced to her doctors’ appointment. Now Paige must turn down her dream job and move back in with her parents to have vaginal surgery as well as a year of bed rest and sex therapy. Her year at home becomes a turning point as she recovers from surgery, fixes her broken relationships, and starts writing about her own struggles with vaginal health care and sexuality.
This story is based off our writer and producer, Bonnie Gross’s, true story. For years she was struggling with painful sex and it affected every aspect of her life from relationships to her career goals. It seemed that no one was talking about the “taboo” subject and even she was scared to talk about it. After years of doctors not believing her pain, she found a specialist in New York that correctly diagnosed her vulvar vestibulitis and vaginismus.
Eventually she got surgery and did a year of sex therapy with dilators. After all was said and done, she wondered why no one was talking about this and why she couldn’t find any media about the subject. She wrote a blog post about the surgery and ended up receiving over six hundred views and an overwhelming response from other women out there, who were experiencing similar issues. Once she was able to get herself healthy, she began writing “Lady Parts” to finally put something out there that no one was talking about but needed to be heard.