at my last smear, I asked them to take a swab and look for STDs (as I was just about to start dating having been single for a very long time and thought I would just get everything checked out)
it came back all fine but I had bacterial vaginosis (and they said caused by something relating to the bacteria not being in balance)
as I had no symptoms, they said I didn't need to take the antibiotics but prescribed them anyway in case I did develop symptoms. I then did get some strange discharge so took them. I have no idea if it cleared anything up as I get quite a lot of discharge anyway.
In the interim I got a really serious chest/sinus/ear infection and was put on heavy duty antibiotics. This then gave me thrush (this always happens) so had to take vast quantities of oral canesten but I can feel now that things are not quite right down there.
Does BV always need antibiotics to go away? What I'm concerned about is that I appear to be in a vicious cycle where antibiotics are needed to cure any infection but they also cause major problems afterwards as they are killing off the good bacteria too (should also say I am milk allergic so struggle with all the probiotic/yoghurt stuff that you can take to help!).