VA how long to sort?

[feettothestars]

It's a long story but I began with what felt like a UTI in October and am still figuring out what the hell went wrong with my vagina. Three rounds of antibiotics later, fighting thrush and also using Blissel gel (Ovestin sting like hell).

I 'think' as I'm peri, I had a nasty combo of VA (had no idea this could happen but sex had got more painful and I was weeing a lot in the night which I put down to shit sleep and weeing to get back to sleep), a UTI (never get these) and now thrush. It's been hell! I've listed another UTI thread, name changed as cocked up my account.

I still have unpleasant feelings when I wee, little shooting pains, I'm still waking to wee anywhere from 2-6 times. I am one week into every day Blissel (which is great by the way lovely and soothing) but terrified the UTI is lurking, unsure if the thrush is gone and clueless as to how long VA takes to feel better? Does it ever feel like it used to? Or do I have to get used to a new normal?

Expensive broth culture grew no bacteria though the cephalexin did seem to help. Bar the violent shits and colossal thrush.

I am on HRT utro and estrogel. They haven't been a magic fix for me but that's another post. I'm 45. Before October I never gave my bladder or urethra a thought. Come at me with stories of hope?

Following with interest. I'm also 45 and am pretty sure I have VA. Battling to see my GP as am not on anything yet and v uncomfortable.

Blissel is quite weak- only half the strength of Ovestin. You might have found the stinging with Ovestin settled down after a while (I did.)

I had the same symptoms as you and it was hell. To be honest it took a good 3 months to feel a lot better and that was using ovestin.

I'm curious why you got Blissel rather than Vagifem or ovestin?

Jingling I think it was because the ovestin hurt so very much they gave it to me. Which my cons thought suggested the VA was quite established. Did you have a UTI to begin with or are the symptoms just very similar? And has it totally gone now for you?

Op, I'm still battling mine every day and I'm a year and 8 months in. I'm on vagifem, ovestin and patches.

Did it start suddenly @Tootsey11? Sorry it's not resolving in some magical way. Bloody peri. It's bulldozed my life!

Yep, one day out of the blue in the first lock down. Thought I had thrush, was given repeated treatment for it and obviously didn't work. Spent months barely able to walk or sit down. Roll on to now I get good days and bad days but never really feel like normal down there. Haven't worn underwear in all this time. It is truly horrible, the quicker you get on vagifem the better as they helped the most, but its finding the right balance of them is the tricky bit. I'm 46 btw.

I had loads of UTIs (combination of meno + new relationship); started HRT but couldn’t get it quite right. Saw a private gynae who said “we need to toughen you up down there”, upped my HRT and added overstating internal cream. Problem solved.

I had exactly your symptoms - more urethritis than cystitis ie pain at my urethra + urgency, and lots of itching. All gone now.

There is hope, my first peri symptoms were VA when i was 48. I took about a year to get right treatment as kept being told you couldn't get it until post meno!
I started with Ovestin and i think it took about about 3 months to feel normal, but improvement did start after a couple of weeks.
I am now post meno, on Oestrogel with Mirena, Vagifem every day and Ovestin. A lot of maintenance but i now only have odd VA blip and no longer have the awful soreness that meant i couldn't walk, sit or sleep.

My va didn't really improve until I read about using vagifem every day for as long as it took. So I did exactly that and used it every day for about a month. That helped enormously and I was then able to lower the dose back down to twice a week.

@feettothestars any update on this or improvement?