Vaginal Gas and Fistula

[Bette66]

I know that this sounds gross but if any of you out there have had this problem you know how embarrassing it can be.  I was told that I had a possible fistula between my colon and vagina. I went in for a test and my gyn inserted some blue dye into my rectum then a tampon in my vagina. I left the office and came back in 1 hour. She took out the tampon and there was no blue dye. So she said no fistula between the colon and vagina. So I went home and went to the bathroom. Well there was blue dye in my urine. So I went back into the office where they drew some urine with a catherer. There was blue tint to it. So she said that it was between my colon and bladder. So I went to the Cleveland Clinic and was checked and they could not find anything. They even did a coloscopy. I might mention that I had a hysterectomy 10 years ago and my bowel was snipped, but my problem did not start until about 5 years ago.
I don't know what my next step should be. It occurs out of the blue and I have no control over it. If I am sitting up in bed and have gas it is clearly coming from both ends. You know if you have regular gas you would at least have time to walk out of the room, but with this you don't. I want to hide from the world.
Please help me and guide me as what to do next. I am totally at a loss.
Thank you

[LadySlipper91]

Your situation sounds just like mine. Being your post was from a while ago I was wondering how you have made out etc... Is it gone? Better? Did you have surgery? I haven't had this very long but enough to do research & find this website. Thank you.

[loma58]

It is very interesting reading all these comments.  I have had problems with this since menopause over the last several years.  I have talked to my doctor about it and she suggested that I douche with 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water.  She says that HPO3 is the same pH as the vagina and will not hurt to do it.  When I do douche with it, it does stop the problem.  I suspect that the problem is caused by some of the flora in the vagina that create gas and that my flora has changed somewhat with menopause.  Like many of you, I sure would like a permanent fix and mine does occur usually after sitting for awhile and often in concert with abdominal gas.  It is orderless and loud and embarrasing, but then I douche and the problem goes away for several weeks and now once I get an inkling that it is starting again, I douche and it goes away.   Good luck ladies.  I hope this works for you.

[desperate603]

Hi I am 48 and have had 4 children vaginally. I have had a problem with passing gas vaginally for years. It is getting worse now as I will be walking and it will escape and make noise and continue as I walk. It is horrible! I have had a rectocelle procedure in 2001 when I had a hysterectomy due to it's falling. I am due to have a cystocelle and wish they could fix me completely.The problem is that I had open heart surgery due to trauma from my ex and I believe it caused me to loose all muscle tone in the pelvic region. I don't know if it's because I flatlined for a while during the surgery or if it is from lack of exercise because I was in soo much pain that I could barely walk from bed to bathroom for a year. Anyone know if vaginal rejuvenation would help? I now have "varting" sounds when having sex which is so embarrassing!

[mxm1124]

I am so glad I found this! I have been researching for 3 months as to what in the heck is going on with me. It started out feeling like a hemorroid and so I got prep H and then went to the Dr. because then there was this pain in my vagina and it swelled up to the size of a golf ball and was there for about a month and a half and finally opened up and drained about 3 weeks ago, so I thought Bartholan cyst and he gave me antibiotics and then I got a freaking yeast infection and had two rounds of diflucan. Now I am still in pain and having a yellowish/orange sometimes chunky discharge that smells like yeast. When I had my period I was glad that I could finally use tampons again, but then it was like an air lock when I would remove them. I only have the gas thing when I wake up and it doesn't have an odor. I call my Dr's office and the nurse will call me back and I have seen the Dr. two times about this and while I like him and he delivered my little girl it's like it doesn't matter to him. Cut back the caffeine, get some exercise...Really?!?!? Really??!?! My husband and I actually had sex the other night after nearly 3 months and while I am sore, it felt good to have that intimacy again. I am 39 years old and I have a 2 1/2 year old via C-Section. I just want to cry!

[LyndsayL]

I agree with Juliana_gb on Aug., 8 in the comment above me.  It is really interesting that Western doctors aren't so familiar with this uterus gas.  Mine isn't uterus gas, though, because I had had a hysterectomy 12 years ago.  I don't have insurance so I can't get all these procedures to investigate my problem.  But, I know in my mind that I have a fistula.  I have done my own tests such as putting the tampon in the vagina and rushing a dye of blue food coloring and water from a turkey baster into my rectum.  Actually a gynecologist had recommended this and I followed his advice.  But, when it came time for him to be interested in my results, he again started foo-fooing my idea that I have a fistula in the vagina.  He has dropped me because I sent a letter to him and his staff saying he doesn't seem to have patience with me to take the time to listen to me.  The good thing is that I have kept my results of the tampons, sealed in small plastic bags.  Now, two weeks ago when I had a night of extreme pain when my rectum was filling (yet not voiding!), I decided to put a tampon in my vagina to test my fistula theory again.  When I woke up 3.5 hours later, I saw a pin-head size yellowish stain on the side of the tampon.  Then I decided to look a the tampons from last April in the plastic bags.  Two of them had the stain at the same place as I had 2 weeks ago.  

Now, I am back to thinking (after a few doctors at low income clinics have told me more or less that I was hallucinating on this idea of a fistula) that I do have a fistula and that this pain is when it gets infected.  I am able to stop the extreme pain by dropping some colloidal silver down there.  Colloidal silver is an anti-biotic.  Also, I want to say, that when I let gas rectally, it is also accompanied by a light, light brown or tan stain on my pad I wear because of some urinary stress incontinence.

My conclusion is that many doctors don't know about fistulas.  They must not realize this is more common than they wish it was.  Or, maybe it's possible they just don't want to get involved.  One nurse even told me it is common for all sorts of stuff to come out of the vagina.  I am now 64 years old.  My thought is that maybe even nurses think it is normal to leak gas or even a bit of poop out of the vagina after menopause.

Sorry this is getting so long.  Also, if this is something I just have to live with because I can't find a doctor who wants to deal with it, how do I deal with it?  I have started taking a probiotic capsule daily.  I have discovered that a bit of tea tree oil applied down there causes the pain to go away so I can fall asleep night.  I have a part-time driving job and when I let gas while driving, this sometimes turns into what I see as an infection.  So, my plan is to just take along the colloidal silver when I'm on the road to combat any infections.  I also wonder to myself:  Do men get fistulas maybe connecting the rectum to the urethra or something and being men, are they respected more for their health ordeals than women.  Why do so many women have this issue and so many doctors give them the run around about it?

[juliana_gb]

It is interesting that Western doctors aren't so familiar with this uterus gas, but in Asian countries it is very well known situation for women. I was actually told by a acupuncturist that this uterus gas is not diagnosable by ultrasound or any other Western standard test but by traditional massagist and/or doctors who practices traditional Asian medicine. I have this problem and been told that it is due to my two surgical procedures including one C-section. So, I had a session of a special gas out from my uterus massage which is actually pretty simple, and after that I felt much better. They said I should have this massage for once in a year, and it should be normal.