BV to treat or not?!

[hopefulmum27]

Hi mums! I'm so confused about what to do. At 12 weeks pregnant I passed a small blood clot and went to get myself checked- turns out I had a haematoma and had exerted myself. They checked the vagina cervix etc and all seemed well. They took a swab and urine sample too to be thorough. The results came back saying all normal except on the high vaginal swab there was the Garderella bacteria which was flagged as abnormal. Since then I've learnt that this is bacteria normally lives in the vagina but in high amounts it can cause BV. However I do not have any symptoms such as unusual discharge or itching etc. I was told I can take metronidazole or I can wait and take another swab in 2 weeks. Mind you I was also on cyclogest pessaries which were probably playing a role in the BV- I have now stopped taking these. Do you think if I don't have any symptoms as such should I still take the metronidazole?

Hi
my understanding is that Bv can be harmful during pregnancy but that antibiotic to treat it isn’t. I would double check with GP as I am not one but if this is the case yes I would take it

@FTMaz hi yes it can be but apparently the risk is low and there are mixed views on whether to treat if you don't have symptoms. Hence I'm confused, even GP is saying it's very common and we usually only treat if symptoms :/

My consultant advised natural yoghurt up there to rebalance the flora. Don’t think it can harm baby?

I was told to take it as a precaution despite having no BV, I had multiple miscarriages and so this was a precaution against that in case there was a link. Not sure if it was a correlation but that was the only pregnancy I did it and the only successful one!

@Revelatio Congrats! That's very reassuring :) How many weeks were you when you took it? And was it metronidazole oral or as a gel? I've been prescribed a vaginal gel

@Sandwichgen oh that's interesting! Did you try it? Mine has advised me to not put anything up there for now as she thinks the pessaries were messing things up (unless I need the antibiotics). I'm really hoping to avoid taking the metronidazole- I know it's said to be safe but it's category B- known to be safe for humans but not for animals (which makes me a bit nervous!)- having said that I'm aware many people have taken it and their babies have been fine!

I did it a few times, Hopeful - it was very messy but I think it did help

It was a gel or cream from memory. I think it was around 11 weeks, but I can’t be certain.

Definitely go ahead and treat it. I had this in my first pregnancy, I treated it and now my eldest is a beautiful, smart nearly 7 year old.

Thank you ladies, very reassuring xx