Vaginal atrophy - Lets mention the unmentionable

[roseenglish1969]

So, it happens to 50% to 60% of women at or around menopause time yet very few women approach their doctors about it suffering in silence with painful sex and all of the other horrible symptoms.

The sad thing is once the damage is done you can’t reverse that damage and your bits do shrink.

The clitoral hood often shrinks back exposing the clitorus which can lead to extreme pain and sensitive as you walk about or move. So tight jeans are a no no.
The inner labia shrinks sometimes to nothing and the inner labia has glands which provides moisture to the outside of the vagina. So no labia no moisture equals dry itchy broken skin. Pain in and outside the vagina, burning to the skin around the vulva and bottom,.
VA also affects the bladder causing leaks, urgency, increased frequency and nighttime trips, so Tenna pads ARE avoidable, we don’t have to accept incontinance as part of getting old.

The difficult part is getting your doctors to
a) understand what your symptoms are
b) give a damn
c) prescribe it as they think vagifem is HRT. It isn’t

Most GPs know next to nothing about VA or menopause so it’s up to you to take some printed information off and ask for vagifem.

A years worth of vagifem amounts to just two full HRT tablets. That’s how little oestrogen is in it. And most of that is absorbed by your reproductive organs as it’s a pessary not a tablet and designed that way for that very reason.

What are your symptoms?

I do wonder if some women are confusing increased libido (sex surge) with VA, I know I did, I thought the sudden sensations to my vag was some new meno symptom which it was but it was because my skin below was thinner and the nerves more exposed and sensitive. I felt arousal below out of the blue, no thoughts of sex at all and it was a very confusing time for me. It’s not a common symptom and I fell into a rabbit hole of health anxiety which I’m still not over... I thought I had some rare nerve disorder that effects the vagina. I literally wanted to die rather than live with the condition. Thanks Google.
Videos of women having 100 involuntary orgasms a day haunted me and I was sure that’s where I was heading.
As I say, still very raw to me as I’m trying to accept I don’t have the condition and have VA.

So I wanted to reach women who perhaps had symptoms and were too afraid or shy to ask,
Pm me if you wish .,,

@nothingontellyagain My gynae is private and I see them for HRT as well as other things. Anyone on HRT has to have a review every 6-12 months anyway whether private or NHS. Discussion over use of vaginal estrogen comes up sometimes.

Cherrytree - maybe it would be worth trying swapping them over - replens at night and vagifem in the morning? Although I usually use that at night, I've done it at other times of day if I've forgotten, and never had a problem with it.

If so many women are unaware of VA and the usually quite easy treatments available for it, and if therefore this causes problems with smears.... maybe people doing smears (often practice nurses) should be trained to give some advice? (Not necessarily diagnose/prescribe themselves).

cherrytree- how long have you used vagifem? You might want to try the 2- week every day regime again to see if it helps.

Vagifem used to come in a larger dose- 25mgs- and is now just 10mgs. women who used to have the old dose have noticed a change ( according to forums) and some use it every day or every other day until they feel better.

Replens is just a moisturiser. Is it possible you are using too much of it? It's water based I think. Maybe it's making the vagifem leak out before it's been absorbed. You need (imo) to stop Replens and focus on using vagifem more often (maybe 3-4 x a week) and not put anything else in there on days when you use vagifem.

Also if you are very tight, you might want to talk to your dr about or research online, vaginal dilators- these are for women who are very tight and can be used to gradually increase what you can 'accept' vaginally.

It seems to be one of those conditions that is kept secret for whatever reason. I’d never heard of it till it hit me and nobody I have spoken to in real life has heard of it. Obviously it’s not spoken about but there must be loads of women walking around with the same thing. Is it because it’s associated with sex? It does annoy me when the first “issue” mentioned with VA is painful sex. It’s so much more than that!

I, on the other hand, am not shy about speaking about this and will talk about it to anyone who will listen.

Queen do you have to see a gynae at the hosp for hrt? I must admit I thought it was GP.

I've just made an appt to go see GP out of hours about symptoms, i'm just starting a new job, if it's a hosptial thing I'm going to struggle and might need to think again.

I mean becasue hosp appts are way less flexible in my experience in nhs - its mre "get what you're given"

Olives I think because anythign related to women's reproductive system has historically & still in places around the world been unmentionalble, really.

Like how cunt is the most awful thing you can call someone.

I grew up before they would even show ads for sanitary protection in the UK.

There is a thing with "womens problems" that we are supposed to put up and shut up as well, which has not been helped and is still not helped by the attitude of a lot of hcps even now.

Thanks for mentioning this, I'm in my 30s but will pack this info away in my brain for future years!

I have to admit my cervix was the first symptom I had but I never saw it as a symptom at the time.
I was having a Vagina scan and the nurse was moving the device inside me all over the place trying to get a clear view of my uterus I was covered in sweat and crying in pain each time she lunged it in deep and ran it over my cervix.
I warned her upfront my cervix would be sensitive as I was due on my period but I never used to have cervix pain in my 30s.

When ever I have a smear or swabs it hurts like hell and I usually spot after and have cramping... never used to happen in my 30s

It’s always my cervix though .

Nothingontellyagain It's private. I see them at their own private practice in a private hospital. I was covered my medical insurance initially but now pay.

I'm going to give up the replens for now, I used it this morning and went back to bed with a cuppa thinking it might get a chance to stick. Have it half an hour then went to the loo and seemed to wipe it all off on the loo roll.
I've been on Vagifem for about 4 years, first the cream and the pessaries for about 18 months.
I don't think it's tightness causing me problems, more the vaginal varicose vein I've been blessed with!

You shouldn't need Replens that much if Vagifem has been used for that long. Maybe you need to think about full HRT OR something called an Estring which is a small estrogen-loaded mushroom shaped thing that sits on the cervix for 3 months then is changed. Have you not been offered treatment for the varicose vein? Seen a gynae? Surely it can be sorted?

I had no idea about any of this, really useful.

38. Guess it's all downhill from here eh

I've been using both on the GPs advice.
I've been refused HRT but TBH I've had a double mastectomy and oopherectomy, so what's the worst that can happen?
I've got a new GP now who I'm quite comfortable with. Waiting for some other test results/ health concerns to be sorted then I'll broach the subject.
I know there's treatment available but will have to push for it I suppose.

Cherry tree - I'm in the same position as you - mastectomy and oopherectomy. And awful VA, I'm only 41 and not ready to abandon sex yet! Maybe I need another appointment at the menopause clinic. But I don't want cancer again!

I have made the appointment with the Practice Nurse, after discussing the options of who to see with the receptionist. After further investigation I think it may be VA and a sodding prolapse. Heigh ho. At least I've got a new boiler and a car through its MOT.

Costa

It’s only downhill if you aren’t fowarned and don’t act upon it.
Now you know
I ignored the thinning discharge, I also ignored the little air bubbles I could feel escaping from below and I also ignored the episodes of feeling like I HAD to pee despite having nothing left to pee. These are all symptoms, I wasn’t sexually active so I missed any indicators from sore sex.
Bladder uretha vagina and the anus are ALL effected by VA.
It can be prevented x

I started using estriol a few months ago and noticed the difference after the 2 weeks of daily use. I was given it because I complained of soreness during sex. I also noticed after about a week that I wasn't needing to wee during the night anymore. I had no ides this was all connected. I never went to the GP about that because I thought its just something that happens as you age. I think GPs should give all women some sort of questionnaire after they are a certain age. That was they would help the ones who don't come forward for it. But I suppose they do not want to create more 'business'.

I must admit I’d never heard of it before it happened to me. I guess it’s out there but you don’t pay much attention if you are not affected by it.

I’m struggling at the moment being a month in on vagifem - no noticeable improvement and a few side effects - but I’ve found a lot of information on here and on other forums - more useful than any info I got from my gp. The general advice seems to be stick with it and see what happens but it’s hard when you want a quick fix.

I can’t believe some women are kind of dismissed by health professionals and basically told to get on with it and I’ve read many ladies have to really push to get treatment? One lady was even told to have more sex and that would sort things out. That’s quite shocking. I for one don’t want to have sex when my ladybits are sore and aching.

I think even with systemic hrt you are told to give it 3 months to feel any benefits. I'm the same, good days and bad days and can't figure out why.
I'm trying the vagifem but may ask for one of the cream versions if no improvement but I'm determined to give this a proper chance.

Anyone used Estriol 0.01 cream for vaginal atrophy ?

Anyone used estriol 0.01 cream for atrophy ?

I used the estriol cream to start with but I changed to the vagifem pessaries as I was uncomfortable with the constant "damp" feeling.

I used to use those but dose is very small so only worked short term

The estriol .01% is the one I use. And as you can see from my previous post it has been successful. Use it at night to stop too much coming back out.