Film & TV4 min(s) read
Published 16:02 29 Apr 2026 GMT
Virgin Island is back on Channel 4 after gripping viewers with its raw look at intimacy struggles, and one participant is already sparking conversation for opening up about a little-discussed health condition.
The series follows 12 young people dealing with intimacy anxiety as they work with sex therapists to face personal barriers around sex and relationships. Among them is Joy, a 22-year-old practising Christian from Falmouth, who has spoken candidly about living with vaginismus and the religious shame she says shaped her view of her body.
Joy reveals on the show she once believed God had “cursed” her with the condition “to stop her from having sex”, while also admitting she had felt “like a freak”. But appearing on the series has become part of a much bigger journey, with the participant saying she wanted to finally make progress after years of struggling.
Vaginismus causes the vaginal muscles to tighten involuntarily when something tries to enter the vagina, which can lead to burning or stinging pain. It can affect penetrative sex, tampon use, and cervical screenings.
The NHS explains: “Vaginismus is an automatic reaction, which you do not have control over. Occasionally, you can get vaginismus even if you have previously enjoyed painless penetrative sex.”
Joy said the condition was the main reason she signed up for Virgin Island.
“I felt like I was losing hope,” she explained to LADbible. “I had been in a relationship and still hadn't been able to work through it.”
She described the Channel 4 series as a “little light at the end of the tunnel”, believing things might “get better”.
Joy also spoke about the challenges of trying to access treatment, saying she had been prescribed medication that was a “bit helpful”, while praising a specialist who was “amazing”. But long waits left her “exhausted”.
She also recalled one “frustrating” appointment where she was told to “come back when you have a partner because it’ll be really much easier to work through it then”.
“I was not planning to sort of find a partner out of somewhere and just to kind of get higher up on a waiting list,” she says.
Treatment for vaginismus can include psychosexual therapy, relaxing techniques, sensate focus, pelvic floor exercises, and vaginal trainers such as dilators. Approaches often focus on relaxation, control, and changing how people feel about their bodies and sex.
Joy says part of her reason for speaking publicly is to raise awareness, especially because she believes women’s health is too often overlooked.
“I just don't think we speak about women's health enough,” she says.
She also pushed back on misconceptions about the condition, including assumptions that it can be fixed quickly.
“And I've had some crude comments off people being like, ‘I can sort you out’,” Joy says. “Like this sense from certain men thinking, ‘Oh but if I just try, if I just try and stick it in there maybe it'll open up for me magically’.”
Her openness has also highlighted how emotional and cultural factors can shape people’s relationships with sex, something she explores throughout the series with therapists.
One of the biggest breakthroughs for Joy came in how she now sees herself.
Having taken part in the show, she says she no longer views herself through the same lens she once did.
“My body isn’t broken, it’s working as it’s kind of been taught to do,” she explains. “Through certain religious messaging, cultural messaging, certain traumatic events that have happened. It’s my body responding to situations that have happened and it’s not broken for doing that.”
She said learning that was a “really big thing”.
“There's just no shame in wanting to experience pleasure and you know, it makes sense why my body wasn't ‘cooperating’ because I wasn't I wasn't really allowing myself or feeling like I was allowed to experience pleasure.”
For Joy, the show was not just about intimacy, but understanding her body in a completely different way.
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