Swollen painful labia minora

[breezyb645]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but I've been suffering with swollen labia minora for 2-3 days now. I see a lot of women on here talking about abscesses(sp?) and a lump that comes to a head and bursts with puss and blood. That's not what I'm experiencing. My swell up to about two times my normal labia minora size then the skin gets sort of chapped and hard and small cuts might form. From that stage it eventually starts to heal after several days. This has only happened to me one other time over my winter break (I'm a college student). Basically no one knows what it is. During the winter I went to my local hospital and they told me to go see a gyn. I went to my reg practitioner who is still pediatrics and they gave me medicine for a uti and yeast infection. It always starts out feeling like a uti and it probably is but then even after the burning while urinating and frequency goes away I start to blow up down there and it gets extremely painful to stand up, wear pants, and even sit in some positions. I went to family planning to see a gyn about it over winter break and she saw the swelling and took a culture and called it "a crazy yeast infection" that she had seen a few times over the previous summer. Well it's back, and this time my normal practitioner tested me negative for yeast but the hospital is saying I have a uti so I'm on antibiotics for that. I took diflucan with my antibiotics just in case they caused a yeast infection, but it can't be yeast if I'm negative for it and I'm still in pain. I had to leave work early Thursday and I missed yesterday and today. I talked to a nurse at the hospital today and she said the uti urine is probably really acidic and is irritating my skin. Maybe that's the case, but what's taking it so long to go away? And I have had plenty of utis before these two painful most recent ones and never had symptoms that involved my labia. I don't know what to do though because no one is helping me. Family Planning can't get me in for another week and it's a saturday so probably no gyn clinics are even open. I've been taking baths with baking soda, using cold packs, putting a anesthetic gel cream on it that is supposed to numb it but it doesn't work that well. I just don't know what to do. I don't even feel like a woman when I have this. Help!

[cm2012]

I have similar symptoms. Can you tell me what you've learned in the last year? Thank you for sharing.

[breezyb645]

Also I have noticed a change in the smell of my discharge. I don't really know how to describe it, it's just different. And sexual intercourse is definitely what caused my uti. I would say it's an std of some sort (maybe from a previous partner because I don't think I'd have symptoms this fast), but every place I've gone they haven't tested me and I don't think my normal practitioner can test me since they are pediatrics.