My doctors are stumped, desperately seeking ideas about vaginal irritation

[serradiora]

I've been having pain in my vagina for 8-9 months now. It causes a burning irritation from my clitoris, my labia minora down to my vaginal opening, the pain is worst around my urethra and when i urinate it semss to hurt a lot worse anywhere the urine has touched. The skin also feels very delicate, like if touch it, or try to have sex it feels like the skin has ripped. About 3 weeks into the irritation an extremely heavy thick white or butter yellow discharge started. The discharge is so bad i soak through underwear some times.
I have been to a regular family practitioner and had all STD UTI and papsmear tests come back normal. They also perscribed clotrimaderm cr + 1% cortisone cream, gen-fluconazole 150mg and flagystatin cream, none of which worked. The first three months was constant irritation and then it started to get better VERY slowly over the next 5 months, however the discharge stayed the same. I just recently saw a Gynecologist (that it took me 6 months to see, and will take me 2-4 weeks to get another appt atleast) and he said he didnt know what was wrong, and to take a ratio-clobetasol .05% clobetasol propion .05%  ointment for 2 months and to come back  if the irritation didnt go away, he also said that he thought the discharge was normal, which i dont understand how that can be normal when i've never had a problem like that before.A week after using the ointment the irritation has come back full bore(it seemed to be getting better over the last 2 months, i was even starting to be able to have sex and now i'm back at square one), and when i urinate it feels like i'm peeing acid. The pain ebbs a little between bathroom trips and then comes back full blast when i pee again and the skin feels delicate inbetween so wiping is a nightmare.
I am desperate for some idea of what this might be and would welcome any ideas that might come from this before my next appointment with the GYN in 1.5 months. Thank you very much for your time.

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi!
If you were my patient, I would treat you with diflucan.  The symptoms you have certainly sound like yeast.  If you are on oral contraceptives, I would urge you to stop them for awhile.  I would probably treat for at least a week with Diflucan and would have you use nothing at all except Crisco ( yes, that's what I said!) externally.  Once your symptoms started to abate a little, I would try to go back to the Clobetasole.
I would also do a urinanalysis and repeat a chlamydia test.
What you can do in the meantime, is to try to re-establish your "good bacteria" by taking probiotics or yogurt with active cultures of lactobacillus.  Normally there should be lots of lactobacillus in the vagina to fight off the yeast and other bacteria.
DO NOT use any chemicals of any sort on the vulvar area--this could make it worse.
If you didn't respond to this therapy, I would next go to biopsy to see if there was some skin condition such as lichen sclerosis or eczema going on.
I hope this helps!
Good luck!
Dr B

[tiredpoet]

Sorry, I know you're waiting for the doctor to answer, but I wanted to quickly chime in - do some reading on DIV - desquamative inflammatory vaginitis.  

[jaguar1717]

I too have been having vaginal  problems.. I want to know is , sex or having sex often causeing me to have yeast infections. I have a new husband now of i6 months we have lots  of sex  seems like just a few weeks later of having lots I get a yeast infection. i have tryed the yogurt eating and it seems to make if worse
i have pain swelling , raw feeling red. a slight discharge itching all the time. The doctor called in meds for me the pills that you take and stays in system for 5 days'

can this happen

[Bluewater406]

I have one word - FLAGYSTATIN

For years I've been having the same problems. Irritations and vaginal itching...swelling of my clitoris, my labia minora down to my vagina opening. Sex i love but could not enjoy fully. If i had sex too often it just seem to irritate my vagina even more. Been to doctors, pap smears, blood works, test for STD's and any other test possible to help get raid of this disgusting annoying irritation, change the type of under-wares to cotton, iron my under wares to kill bacteria, tried oral vaginal pills, tried acidophilus to get my ph balance back to normal, change my diet to help my ph balance... man i tried every thing it would seem   And some times it even seems to be more worst when im getting close to my cycle. I've blamed my boy friend for constantly giving it back to me. (which i believe is also the reason its been re-occurring) I do believe that our man is also part of the reason we keep getting these symptoms as well. We've changed condoms, tried with or with out condoms.. Nothing seemed to be working in my favor.....

I constantly ware panty liners on an every day basics because i don't like to feel wet with the discharge i get whether its my normal body fluid or some infection coming on yet again . The great-full thing about panty liners is it helped get raid of the odor and i could see the color of the discharge which help me know when its just normal body fluid or if something is going wrong again. Sooo.... I'm i  Frustrated? Yes!

Then my gynecologist give me this wonderful wonderful cream called FLAGYSTATIN. This cream works almost immediately it would seem. After an overnight dose the morning feels wonderful. Swelling is gone, the itching stop, the tenderness of the skin is now reduced, peeing seems normal once again,  my body produce regular mucus one again (after 4 day of treatment - But its recommend to use for 10 days), sex is a blast once again. Thats how great i find this cream works. It is an anti-biotic type of cream or so i've been told so you cannot drink when using it, (well i don't) but this cream to me seems to be stronger then the rest of vaginal cream out there....

Ask your doctor about it and try it.. May be it will work for you....
I stand by my new friend called FLAGYSTATIN