perimenopause and weird discharge (a lot of TMI...)

[namechangingchihuahua]

I’m fifty and seemed to be chugging among fine until my periods stopped suddenly last September.
I had one more weird period two weeks later,
A month of hot flushes
And then absolutely nothing - no flushes, no bleeding - until I got another period a month ago.
I know this is so far so normal. But I have a question:
Since my last period, I started to have a great deal of watery discharge.
It has so far lasted two weeks.
Watery enough to feel like urine, but it definitely isn't
I had to wear tampax because it was so excessive.. and at one stage I pulled out the tampax and water flooded out and soaked my knickers and my tights and ran down my legs and even splashed on the floor.

It is not like vaginal discharge… although the tampax is coming out soaking wet but also ever so slightly tinged with brown (but like a tiny hint, not like brown blood after a period).
And it smells unpleasant.
Not foul, but unpleasant… brackish.
It smells like stagnant water…. it makes me think of a stagnant pond.
It can’t be an STI as I haven’t had sex for years.
It is driving me crazy.
Particularly as I have also simultaneously developed a hyper alert sense of smell.
What to do? Is this perimenopausal? Or something else?

It might be BV www.nhs.uk/conditions/bacterialvaginosis/pages/introduction.aspx
It might be something else but you need it investigating.
If it's not BV it could be VA - vaginal atrophy- or even something going on in your uterus.

You need to see your GP and have swabs taken. What you are having is not a normal peri symptom but also it's not a good idea to use tampons unless you have a period because they can make discharges etc worse by not allowing the air to circulate or the discharge to 'escape'.

Thank you.
I left a tampax in during my period for 36 hours because I was so unused to having periods and forgot about it. I wonder if this is Vagi-whatsit and has happened as a consequence of that.

Appreciate your suggestion. Will ring GP.

vagi-whatsit is a result of disturbed pH , and the resulting upset of the balance of your vaginal flora, like thrush.

You can get antibiotics for it, or use something like microgyn Actigel from the big chemist shop.

It may also be overproduction of cervical mucus (like you get when ovulating) from a high oestrogen blip from you body trying to ovulate. In which case, I would make sure I had plenty tampax etc.

Don't the leaflets in boxes of tampons tell us not to use them except during a period? They used to.

The reason being that leaving something hot and damp up when there isn't a good flow of blood swishing everything out can cause / exacerbate all kinds of things and disturb the flora.

If you left a tampon in for 36 hours, the odds are you have got some kind of BV or infection.

yes. thanks. so it seems. makes sense.

Well POLLY PERKY - thanks for getting me to the doctor. I was given an emergency appointment. She had a poke around. To my horror, and to hers, there was a THREE WEEK OLD TAMPAX WEDGED UP MY VAGINAL CANAL. She removed it, chucked it in the bin like a dead rat, and there was jubilation all round.

I tell you, I SPRUNG out of that doctor, hopping around, delighted not to have an atrophied vagina, or vagi-whatsit or just some disgusting perimenopausal syptom which would make internet dating an impossible dream.

My vagina is as was. Intact. No longer repulsive. I do not leak. I am restored.

(My children sat outside the doctor's surgery in the waiting room - they were totally spellbound and revolted by the whole episode... it was our late afternoon adventure).

O.M.G.

So at one point you had 2 up there? I did almost ask if you might have left one in as the symptoms you described are pretty classic for that but I thought 'Noooooooo....she'd check'

Glad it's sorted.

Gotta laugh sorry!

At one point I had THREE UP THERE!!!!!

I'm so happy with my new restored non leaking vagina.

It was very rammed right up high as I'd put in two after it...
I'd put in one during my period, pulled it out, discovered another, pulled it out, but that one had jammed right up my vaginal canal.
Dear lord.
This is what happens if you forget how to have periods.

Oh dear. Name change fail op?

Actually I'd name changed again to post about limestone in DIY. so there's not much of a trail!

I've been prancing around the house all morning to the annoyance of my children singing: "I've got a lovely vagina" (or, as amended by my daughter, I'm going to put My VAGINA in a MUSEUM in BLEAUNAU" (it rhymes in Wales).

I feel DELIGHTED. I haven't got vaginal atrophy. HURRAH!

Gosh you are lucky to have the space for that many tampons! After 2 kids my cervix is not as high as it was and tampons are very uncomfortable.

I love your happiness! Glad you haven't been outed

Wow, impressed!

Before my 'repair' I could only get one in, and even that fell out .

So, what is vagina in Welsh?

I can get loads of tampax in, but I'm afraid that impressive trick means nothing given that my vagina has seen no action for many a year.