this is really embarrassing to write about but here goes:

in my early 20s i used to really enjoy nipple stimulation and find it very pleasurable. however, in my mid-20s it started to become very unpleasant (oversensitive, painful) and has stayed that way for a decade. i miss how i used to feel and am not sure what changed.

i was not on any new birth control; no obvious hormonal or weight or lifestyle changes correspond to this change. [edit: now that i'm thinking about it, i did start medication that affects dopamine (stimulants and an antidepressant) sort of around this time, though i feel the problem may have started before the stimulants? i was also taking SSRIs, but i'd been taking them for 3 years prior to this starting. since then i have taken years off both the SSRIs and the antidepressant in question and changed stimulant medication. the sensitivity remains.]

my partner at the time used to pressure me into sex in a very guilt-trippy and sometimes mildly physical way, often going straight for my boobs because he thought it would turn me on and sometimes being a bit rougher than i have ever enjoyed. this went on for quite a while and i felt so, so bad and uncomfortable about it.

since then, i've wondered if i could have developed some sort of psychological issue around anyone touching my nipples - i can barely stand to be touched there most of the time.

has anyone else experienced this? can it be caused by something hormonal, or changes in age, or something? has anyone managed to reverse it, whatever it is?