Can barely remember a time when my vagina wasn’t sore

[Ceriane]

I have basically had pain in varying forms down there for most of my adult life. I have had bouts of recurring thrush and BV and have also had a couple of extremely painful staphylococcus infections (now treated). I have had anaemia and B12 deficiency both of which made my vagina dry and I get some form of colitis and when I get a flare up I get vaginal soreness after a BM even though different hole, the nerve endings must be connected. Can anyone relate? I have not had babies and have been single for years, mainly because I just don’t know how I would explain all of this to a man as sex would be off the cards so much of the time. Does anyone else have this problem, it seems to me that everyone else in the world is calm about sex and relationships and has no problems.

I haven't had exactly those problems but other similar things at times any just wanted to say I feel for you, it's not nice at all, especially in such an intimate area. Is your GP any good? Have you ever got to the bottom (no pun intended) of why there are so many recurring issues? Maybe it's being generally run down that triggers things. I'd be inclined to look at it more holistically in terms of your health. NHS not always good at getting to underlying, non life threatening, things IME. Maybe you could seek out a support group of some kind, there are lots on Facebook for different health things and they tend to be a mine of information, as long as you're careful to weed out any crackpot theories.

Did your GP rule out Lichen Sclerosus?

If mine gets sore I stick a bit of Sudocrem on it. And a bit of pile cream after a poo can prevent any issues from that end. What helped me more than anything was losing weight and cutting out a lot of the junk I was eating. General health and taking probiotics helps with everything. Also, tampons and pads made me really sore, I found a big improvement from switching to a mooncup.

I had 18 months of being in constant discomfort and itchy like thrush but it wasn't. Turned out to be my coil threads vanished once I had the wretched thing removed.

You poor thing I cannot imagine that being my "normal" it was awful.

Have you had a proper referral?

Next time you go and see a GP just imagine this was your penis.. just imagine a man living with itching, soreness and pain and not being treated immediately with referrals, consultants and care and sympathy.

If a man said I'm staying single as I can't face a relationship, he'd be seen within weeks, even with covid stuff going on.

Please go back to your GP and ask for help to find out what's cause of you all of the distress, you can't just be expected to live like this with no referrals to a specialist gynaecologist.

And channel the penis analogy's because that's the only way women's health will ever get the support it needs when we challenge the biases.

My menopausal vagina has been a lot like this. Dry, itchy, sore from scratching. I hope you are able to talk to your GP and find solutions.

Thanks for your replies. I have seen gynae and they have ruled out lichen sclerosis as I mentioned that was something I was worried about. I think the pain is very much linked to my bouts of colitis as that seems to be when I get it and Greendoonan I think you may be onto something with diet as I have noticed that I get it a lot less, both the colitis and the yeast infections when I’m eating healthier ie less gluten and sugar (hard to stick to though but it seems to help) and taking probiotics. I think the BV was something I got from trying to treat the thrush...the treatment whacked my PH level back the opposite way. So frustrating but I think diet and looking after my gut may be the key. I just walk around feeling like everyone else is fine in that area, can confidently have sex whenever they want and I just keep on having problems...but you never know what other people might be suffering from.

I was going to say Lichen Sclerosus too

I had very frequent low level itching down there for most of my life until I realised I had histamine intolerance or something, I get kind of pseudo allergic reactions to lots of things. I now realise yogurt is the main trigger for my itching in that area. And marshmallows . It's been bliss not having the itching so I really feel for you.

Have you been tested for coeliac disease? Vaginal soreness can be a rare symptom of that.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984362/

Yes I have a slight problem with histamine as well as I also have problems with angioedema. I don’t think my problem is gynae tbh. The infections have been treated. I think the soreness is more linked to my colitis as it comes on after a flare up, after a BM (too much information I know) I also think I possibly have candida overgrowth. I think if I need another specialist it’s probably gastroenterology. I think this is also what’s causing my problems with vitamin absorption and I’m on injections and tablets for that. A lot of it seems to be managed by lifestyle ie diet etc. I have been tested for Coeliac and everything else under the sun so many times. I don’t think it’s a simple thing to fix by banging my fist on the right Dr’s table and a magic wand being waved. I think it’s more complicated than that as it’s linked up with other health conditions. It’s more something I self manage if that makes any sense, I just stress about how to explain this to a guy???

I know it's has but try to stick to no gluten and sugar. In my teens I had CONSTANT thrush and the only thing that helped was a very strict candida diet for about a year and A couple of decades later I'm still gluten free and very minimal sugar. I can literally feel the itching start if I look too long at a bar of chocolate 😂😂

Thanks. I think that's what I need to do, as I think that is what my problem is, candida overgrowth, as I have a lot of other symptoms as well: fatigue, brain fog, vitamin deficiencies (despite a good diet), stomach issues, bloating, and I also get a sore tongue and lips a lot as well. Think I need to do a candida cleanse. I'm going to use this lent to go as gluten and sugar free as possible!

Definitely try and see if it helps! Some people can get a "candida die off" reaction or something where basically you feel worse before you got better, but I never got that and for me I felt better within a couple of weeks. When I first tried there wasn't half the stuff in the shops that there is now, eg there was only one kind of gluten free bread in a rock solid load in our local health food shop!! My advice would be just to read lots of labels as eg lots of gluten free bread has sugar in it. It's easier tbh if you don't really on pre made/packaged food. Eg cooking a meal fresh with meat/fish and veg it's quite hard to add in gluten or sugar! :)

Thank you.