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[CleoChic]

Hi guys, I've just joined.  I have quite a long story so I'll try to keep it as short as I can. I'm 43 and have had vaginal burning for 13 years since I had a Leep procedure for CIN3. Along with the burning I get urinary urgency and on/off discharge. It lasts months at a time and then will go away for a few weeks/months and then it comes back again. It sometimes comes on monthly a week before my period and continues for weeks. Anyway, noone seems to know what's causing it. I've tried all sorts. Coconut oil helps with the burning and I've used Multigyn, Balance Activ etc too on a regular basis but I find they cause some irritation. Also tried various other thursh and BV treatments but nothing really knocks out whatever the issue is.
I've been in the middle of one particularly bad stretch of pain that started last November which was starting to get better (I'd been taking high strength probiotics from America and D Mannose) until I started HRT.  I haven't had a period since coming off the pill in January  and so I've had a lot of various menopausal symptoms which were really making me horrendous to live with such as sweats, depression, no sleep, no energy etc and so my gynecologist put me on Evorel Sequi patches. Well, I literally felt like a new woman within a couple of days and my vagina felt back to normal too  .........  Until.... 2 weeks in I started to get a watery discharge that was irritating me and the burning started again  This started the day before I started the combined patch and just continued to get worse. I just don't know what to do, do I continue with the patches (I've started to half them on the basis that i thought maybe I was getting too many hormones) or do i stop and hope my vagina settles again. But then I go back into the depths of depression,  not sleeping , sweating etc.  I have seen so many specialists and private gynecologists over the years and I recently waited 18 months to see the special interest gynecologist for her to prescribe me a homeopathic remedy and send me on my way  I'm just so frustrated and it really is affecting my quality of life. When it's at its worst I literally cannot walk because the pain is so bad. I've been told I look fine down there, and don't "feel" dry altho it does look quite pale and there are some small red patches the crop up when I'm sore.  I also have Graves disease so currently being treated for that and also within days of starting the HRT I've had bad acid reflux which is causing me breathing issues. I'm  so fed up I just really don't know where to go from here.

[CLKD]

All your care professionals have been negligent 

   thrush will cause a discharge as will normal vaginal secretions.  I suggest reading 'bladder issues' and 'vaginal atrophy' threads, here on the Forum.  Make notes.  I suspect that some of the comments will tie in with your symptoms.

As oestrogen levels drop so the body may become dry: inside and out.  This includes the vaginal area.  VA can mimic repeated urine infection-type symptoms really really well!

Who over-sees the treatment for Graves disease [which I will need to look. up!].  Reflux can be due to laxity of muscles too, common in perimenopause.  There are many remedies that can ease that awful burning in the gullet! 


MayB keep a mood/food/symptom diary and read it to your GP?  Let us know how you get on.  There is always HOPE!

[CleoChic]

I totally agree, noone seems to be looking at the bigger picture with me at all, I've been fobbed off constantly over the years and it's just making me feel like giving up.

I've always thought it was thrush but the million pessaries and fluconazole tablets that I took never really made any difference. They stopped swabbing me a few years ago because they always came back negative 

If it is dryness would estrogen cause the pain  to worsen initially? Do I persevere with the HRT in that case? If its infection then obviously the estrogen has made it worse so if I stay on the HRT then it'll never go away    I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Oh I'm so confused by it all,  I'm also on a forum for women who have issues following Leep treatment. They tell you that removing cells from the cervix won't interfere with hormones/sex life or give you continuous infections etc but that's not the experience of many woman.

I see an Endocrinologist about the Graves ( it causes hyperthyroidism), it's a lifelong condition that can go into remission.  Yes I've been on Omeprazole for the reflux and a load on antacids etc but it's not had any impact on the severity of it yet.

I think I'll speak to my GP again about it. Feel like they must see my name on the Triage list and wonder what I want now!

[CrispyChick]

Has anyone considered or mentioned vulvodynia???

[CleoChic]

Hi CrispyChick, yes that has been mentioned too and I have taken Amitriptyline long term in the past and now on pregabalin but I'm still in pain. I've done a lot of research to try and understand what's going on, it's frustrating when you feel you know more than the person who's trying to help you 😔