In January 2008, I began dating someone. At the time, I had only one previous sexual partner, and regrettably I made the stupid mistake of having unprotected sex with this new boyfriend.
About a week later, I developed what I thought was a yeast infection. I purchased Monistat 1 and self-treated the infection, which appeared to clear up within a couple of days.
A few weeks later, in the beginning of February, this “yeast infection” came back. This time I purchased a Monistat treatment with a longer duration. To my disappointment, the infection did not clear up–not even slightly.
I visited a nurse practitioner at my college clinic, who did a wet mount as well as tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea. The STD tests were negative, and not much yeast was shown. She prescribed some Diflucan and told me to use them in combination with another round of Monistat. I was horrified when, a week later, my symptoms were still present.
I returned to the clinic, where the NP diagnosed me with cervicitis and put me on a 10-day treatment of doxycycline. The second day in, I thought it was helping–but, after all ten days I still had my symptoms.
On my next visit to the NP, she tested me for genital herpes, which was negative. She admitted she was stumped and gave me a bottle of Flagyl, and it (of course) did nothing for me. Upon hearing this, the NP tested me for non-albicans yeast (once again, negative) and put me on two weeks of boric acid suppositories. These didn’t help at all.
Finally, the doctor at the clinic visited with me. She did a culture, which came back showing nothing problematic, and told me stress with school was to blame for my symptoms. She advised that I wait until the end of the summer and the symptoms would likely clear up on their own. So that’s what I did–gave up and waited.
I waited until December 2008 before pursuing a solution again. This time I saw an NP at a gynecologist’s office. She performed a pap smear that came back normal, and put me on a treatment involving one dose of Flagyl weekly for 12 weeks. I did this for a month, and noticed no change in symptoms, so I quit taking the pills.
My next visit involved a test for strep B–surprise surprise, negative. The NP insisted I try topical Metrogel, which I did to make her happy, and I was not shocked when it didn’t help a bit.
Although I had already tried boric acid, this new NP was convinced it would work–she told me to use one suppository per week for 12 weeks. When that didn’t rid me of my symptoms, she prescribed Clindamycin. I never found out whether or not it would work because I had a severe allergic reaction to it.
In June 2009, after reading about this supposed miracle anti-candida diet, I gave the diet my first shot. I did it for about three weeks, while also doing an expensive herbal candida cleanse, and noticed absolutely no change in my symptoms. In this time, I also tried the expensive probiotics, the douching with hydrogen peroxide, and a product called Aci-jel. Still, my symptoms persisted.
In August 2009, I gave the candida diet a second shot. I was incredibly strict about the diet and never cheated or backed down once. After a month, when my symptoms had still not improved by even one percent, I decided it wasn’t healthy for me and I eased back into a normal diet. I have since kept a journal of the foods I eat to record whether or not they affect my symptoms; I still have not been able to make a connection between my food intake and my symptoms flaring up.
In October 2009, I demanded to see a real gynecologist instead of a nurse practitioner. The doctor who saw me confirmed it was not yeast- or bacteria-related, but performed a culture to be sure. The culture showed no yeast, no bacteria, and normal vaginal flora. My doctor scheduled a colposcopy, which was performed in November 2009.
During the colposcopy, the doctor also biopsied some tissue. A week later, they called to say I have VIN1 (vulvar dysplasia) and I was given a 3-month treatment of Aldara cream.
A month into the Aldara, I developed a chemical burn on my vulvar tissue as a result of using the cream. My doctor ceased treatment immediately, for that reason and also because the treatment had made no change in my symptoms. At the time of stopping the Aldara, my doctor prescribed a corticosteroid cream and had me use it twice daily for three weeks. When I began using the steroid cream, I also quit taking my birth control pills–I had been on them for six years and was wondering if they were contributing in any way. Three weeks later, I had noticed no improvement with the steroid cream. Six months later, I still have seen no improvement from quitting birth control.
My doctor’s next move was to perform laser surgery to remove the tissue affected by the VIN1. I saw a new doctor to get a second opinion; he didn’t agree with the surgery idea, and he was under the belief I had lichen sclerosis. He treated me with two different creams–Atopiclair and Elidel–and when both of them actually worsened my symptoms, he referred me to a dermatologist who specializes in vulvar skin conditions.
The dermatologist did an exam to see if lichen planus was possibly the culprit; she saw some evidence, but not enough, and she made a phone call to the vulvar clinic at OHSU to speak with the specialists there. The specialists claimed it sounds like I have vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS), and I have recently begun taking Amitriptyline for chronic pain and I’ve been given Lidocaine gel to use for numbing the area when it feels irritated. I have not yet been able to try the Lidocaine, and it’s too soon to tell if the Amitriptyline is providing me with any benefit. After nothing but failures for over two years, though, I am at the point where a positive outlook about any treatment is near impossible.
Tags: Aldara, Atopiclair, bacterial vaginosis, biopsy, birth control, boric acid, candida diet, cervicitis, colposcopy, corticosteroid, diflucan, doxycycline, Elidel, flagyl, lichen planus, lichen sclerosis, STDs, strep b, VIN, vulvar vestibulitis, yeast infection
