My vagina smells bad!

[Gingerkittykat]

Not a troll, a regular poster.

I know I shouldn't be embarrassed by female health stuff but I am.

My vagina smells bad and has done for the past few days. It smells kinda like stale period blood/ wet dog. There's no abnormal discharge that I can see, I've got some discomfort in my lower abdomen.

I'm 46, and recently finished a 15 day course of high dose flucloxacillin which gave me thrush. I've treated the thrush with cream, it's still a bit itchy so will probably use a pessary too but thrush never smells like this for me.

I'm not sexually active so it's definitely not sexually transmitted.

I'm in peri. After a lot of abnormal bleeding, I got the contraceptive injection which has slowed my periods down to roughly 2 days a month. My last period was about a fortnight ago.

What could this be? The thought of having to go to the Dr and get examined makes me feel sick to the pit of my stomach, especially as the only appointments available are with a male nurse practitioner.

Have you left a tampon in?

Sounds like BV. Any watery discharge or frequent weeing?

Bad smell usually means either a forgotten tampon or bacterial vaginosis (which unfortunately requires antibiotics).

Saying that, I have had a few episodes of noticing a weird unpleasant smell down south but it resolved itself in 2-3 days tops, before I could even book an appointment. I assume it must have been my pH being thrown off by something random.

Worth going to see gp as it could be bacterial vaginosis.

I don't use tampons so definitely not left one in.

I am peeing an insane amount right now, so maybe it is BV.

How do you catch it? I'm wondering if the antibiotics have thrown everything out of synch?

UTI?

You don't catch it as such. Just an unhappy ph which could have been caused by the thrush which was caused by the anti biotics. Vicious circle.
Doctor will give you some metronidazole (or some vaginal gel if you're sensitive to metronidazole). No biggy. Lots of women get it

I've had metronidazole from the dentist before and it made me feel really awful so a gel sounds better.

I'm now psyching myself up to make that phone call on Monday and trying to explain myself to the receptionist!

Try some cranberry capsules. They were recommended to me on here. They work.

Sudocrem. Slather it on.

Did the cranberry capsules work for BV? I thought they only worked for UTIs.

I'm not sticking Sudocrem on my bits, I've got a feeling that would upset the balance even more!

No sudocrem ! Never heard of doing that
it could be the antibiotics that’s upset your ph levels.

just tell receptionist you think you may have BV
and can you have a prescription made up or an appointment

Or Amazon sell these
Canesbalance Bacterial Vaginosis Vaginal Singleuse Gel, Pack of 7
Canesbalance Bacterial Vaginosis Vaginal Singleuse Gel, Pack of 7
7 Count (Pack of 1)
4.6 out of 5 stars 7,456
£9.50

Sudocrem is perfectly fine to use. It’s recommended for nappy rash in babies for god’s sake.

BV is a bacterial imbalance in your vag. Antibiotics can definitely trigger it. I got it a couple of times from using spermicide.
Visit your GUM clinic or GP they'll give you a pill. Sorted.

Could be AV but doctors don't know much about this. You could get a Juno or Evvy swab which will show your vaginal microbiome and if the antibiotics you have had previously have upset the balance. BV and AV can be treated by fluomizin which is not an antibiotic.

BV is my vote too you can treat it with something called balance active which you can buy on Amazon , it’s a faff getting it in there but it fixes mine literally overnight . It’s just a gel you squeeze in .
i buy a multi pack and use one everytime I’ve had antibiotics or notice anything untoward and I’ve done this for years and have a very healthy vag as far as I know .

I think it's BV too.
I get it quite often after my period - I'm peri too.
I use myoni vaginal suppository's

www.miiyoni.shop/

I usually need to use them for 5 nights in a row and then I'm good again until my next period...

I wear knickers and a party liner to sleep in when I'm using them at night.

Sudocrem dries out your skin. I would never use it on my vag.

It’s not a permanent effect. It works fine again now.

It sounds like BV which is just an imbalance in your natural vaginal flora.
The antibiotics will have given you thrush which will have given you BV.
I wouldn't recommend Metronidazole tbh, it doesn't treat it because there's no infection to clear (the MTZ just strips away all the vaginal flora temporarily which stops the discharge, but when it returns it will still be imbalanced).
Lactic acid gels would be better (you can buy them OTC), wash with water, avoid perfumed toiletries and sanitary products) and it will rebalance. I'd only use Metronidazole only if none of that works after a few weeks.

Another vote for lactic acid gel like Balance Activ in Super drug or boots Amazon etc

What a ridiculous suggestion !

I also had a bad reaction to metronidazole.

Stop stressing about it lol. I literally just ring and say "I'd like to make an appointment. I think I have bv" it's so common they are totally unphased. If they have no appointments I ask if I can do a self swab. They usually squeeze you in with a nurse as it's an easy 5 min app if you think you know what the issue is

I've just ordered some Balance Activ from Amazon, hopefully it will sort it without me needing to see a Dr.

I second balance activ gel, works a treat.