Beyond mortified, please help! TMI

[Beyondmort]

I'm so so embarrassed about this and have obviously name changed.

I seem to have the world's most persistent case of threadworms and I don't know what else to try. I can't bring myself to see the Gp - I'm in my 50's and feel so ashamed :(. I've followed all online advice and have taken 6 ovex tablets over the course of the last 3 or 4 months - which is how long I've had them for.

I shower twice daily. I change my underwear twice daily. I wash towels/bedding/nightwear at least twice a week. I wash my hand thoroughly after using the toilet. I wipe the toilet and flush button after each use. I don't share towels. I'm the only person who uses my en suite.

I have no idea where I can have picked them up from. My youngest dc is 15, I don't work with children and I've no partner.

Please can anyone suggest anything other than the Gp? Could it be something other than threadworm? It's getting me seriously down :(. Very grateful for any suggestions.

You’re just passing them backwards
and forwards- have one last go treating everyone and see qht happens. It’s only worms!

The eggs can be transferred to door handles / light switches etc, too. Give them a wipe over. Eggs also go under finger nails so give your nails a scrub with a nail brush - get your DC to do the same.

You can get it in banana flavour liquid.one bottle does 6 people.get and give everyone a spoonful.was all towels and bedding...and repeat every week untill gone

Wash not was

I had threadworm as a teen and didn't tell my mum for weeks. Was too embarrassed.

Have you actually seen them? Piles can be itchy.

Are you doing ovex at two week intervals? That’s what you need to catch the new ones hatching.

I would try a really robust regime of treating the whole family every ten days for three weeks. So three treatments.

Threadworms are so common op, and easy to catch. Not embarrassing ! No more embarrassing than head lice or ring worm.
I agree that you need to treat everyone. The eggs can just float around in dust, as they are tiny.

Please don't be embarrassed, those of us that work in health care are not easily shocked and honestly will just want to put you at ease and find a fix.see the Dr give yourself some relief. It must be all consuming for you with the discomfort.

The gp will not care one iota!

Like nits the whole family need treated probably.

The other bit of Advice is to wear gloves, those cotton moisturising gloves would do.to sleep as apparently you are likely scratching in your sleep which means eggs get under your nails so even though your washing your hands you are probably not getting all the eggs from under the nails then reinfecting yourself over and over.

The gloves mean you can't get any eggs on your actual hands or nails.

I learned recently that restiance to worm medication was becoming a real problem. On a par with anti biotic resistant bacteria. Not so much a problem for humans in the UK but in Africa, where the parasites are much more damaging, and also there’s is a huge impact on livestock across the world

OP, I am a bit ashamed to say I haven't RTFT, but I wrote a very big article about threadworms in children some years ago. The main advice I remember (and I'm not joking or trolling, I promise) was sticking a piece of Sellotape to your bum overnight. Apparently the worms will stick to it. Failing that, the GP is the obvious port of call. I think they are pretty un-embarrassable, thankfully.

Please don’t be embarrassed!

When they were in my home, I steamed the mattresses, boil washed the bedding and towels, bleached bathrooms/kitchens, disinfected door handles and light switches and kept underwear on at bedtime for a couple of weeks. We all were treated with over and fingers crossed, they haven’t been back.

Please see your GP though if nothing is helping, I promise it won’t be as bad as you think it will be.

You need to treat the whole household. It sounds like someone else in your house has them. Get a family pack of ovex and clean everything. I got them when I was pregnant and it was truly dreadful and wasnt allowed Ovex. I had to scrub everything, treat everyone in the house and my ass was cleaned three times a day to clear out the eggs (crass I know) I was desperate and they cleared. I feel your pain!

Your GP will have seen things that would you could never imagine. As a student nurse I remember a man with a large bar of soap up his bum, another with a buzzing vibrator up there. A dowdy business man with a leopard skin thong under his full suit. And I only did a few weeks on a&e. Your GP will have at least 9 years of medical experience.
S/he will barely register your threadworms, and won’t have time to judge you. Lots of adults get them.

The one thing I have not seen here is to put a goodly smear of zinc and castor oil in your bum every time you have been to the toilet and before going to bed. At least it stops the blighters wriggling and stops them laying eggs.
I know what you mean about not wanting to see a doctor.

Dull suit

The whole family needs to be treated, and everyone needs to scrub their nails.
You can't just treat one person, for obvious reasons. Threadworms come out at night. They itch. People scratch down there while asleep/close to sleep.

Hence scrubbing one's nails is important.

You're all so kind - thank you. I'll try treating the dc first then before braving the Gp.

^Scardanelli* I'd read that online about the sellotape but I thought that was to diagnose not treat?

But seriously, don't waste the doctor's time. S/he'll just tell you what we have. Family pack of Ovex and good hand hygiene. There's nothing else they can do.

Op, the doctor doesn't look. They take a urine sample and test that. Or more correctly you get a sample jar, go home, provide a urine sample a d they test it. They then give you a stronger medication than you can buy over the counter.

FFS, doctors are trained to deal with these things. When they look at an anus, it's an impersonal thing, it's not about you. You need to get over that, because it's ridiculous.

I say this as something who comes from a medical family.

Are you keeping your nails super short?

You absolutely have to treat the whole family
You have to shower first thing in morning and change nightwear and bedding
Hot wash everything

Scrub nails, keep nails short
Repeat treatment after 2 weeks

If still present you will need to take a stool sample but it’s nearly always reinfection not treatment failure

See tho link cks.nice.org.uk/threadworm#!scenario

Oh, thought it was going to be something properly cringeworthy. Just worms? Very disappointing .

Do they still make Pripsen?

And PLEASE tell me you go to the gynaecologist.