Hi everyone, hope it's ok to post - I'm new to the forum (and to all of this!!!)
Started around a month ago with what I thought was thrush: out of nowhere (only possible trigger was me running out of cotton knickers and wearing an old pair of nylon ones
), itching, stinging, burning; swollen-feeling vulva. Tried canestan, which didn’t seem to help. Took to the internet, and thought: I’m 45, this could well be VA. I had a prescription for HRT due to other symptoms which I hadn’t got round to starting, so I picked that up, started on oestrogen gel, and about 5 days later felt better.
Fine for about 10 days, and then foolishly my husband and I decided to have sex
Within a couple of hours, I started to feel the burning again. The following day I walked to and from the station to work and was in horrible pain and discomfort; felt like my labia were sort of sticking together, and everything was burning. I worked from home for the rest of the week, and was prescribed Blissel by the GP over the phone; however, the day after the first dose, I noticed that I had what looked like thrush discharge. Treated for that with fluconazole on Saturday am, and was feeling a bit better yesterday. But then I took my 8yo to his swimming class , probably walked about 300yds in total, and everything is stinging and burning again 😭😭😭😭
Has anyone experienced anything along these lines?! I really don’t know what’s caused what; whether this is thrush healing slowly; whether VA is the issue and it/the oestrogen is causing thrush, or WHAT. My pain seems to be massively triggered by walking which seems very specific and odd - it feels like my labia are so dry and sticking together that they the act of walking is causing almost abrasion? Is this possible?! Now haven't walked anywhere today, but everything is now just on fire - burning all the way down my thighs as well as all over my vulva
Does this sound like VA to people with more experience? Has anyone else had the pain on walking? So grateful for ANY thoughts - can’t decide whether to push on with Blissel or not... I also had an interstitial cystitis diagnosis in my early 30s which I struggled with for years, but which eventually healed with careful management and diet; this doesn't feel the same (no bladder symptoms thankfully) but the burning is horribly familiar, and is causing me to react in an almost PTSD way - like, this is going to go on forever and I'll never feel normal again!!