Hi ladies, I'm having an absolutely miserable time at the moment and could really do with some friendly words/advice from someone who has gone through similar. Firstly, can I add that I've only had 2 sexual partners in my life, both long-term. Plus I have PCOS and long cycles. I'll give you a run down of my last 6 months:
All my life up until July: Totally normal
End of July: Hospitalised with bad EBV (glandular fever) with inflamed liver and spleen. Warned it would be up to a year before I felt near normal again.
Late August: Allowed home to recover.
September: Started feeling sore, thought I had thrush, ulcers developed, then open sores. Diagnosed with HSV1 (herpes) genitally that I apparently could've had all my life, but were showing as my immune system was horrendously low. Have never been in so much pain in my life.
October: 5+ HSV1 break outs
Mid-October: More HSV breakouts - put on long-term anti-virals to suppress. Started dealing with a horrific case of what I thought was thrush. Had weeks upon weeks of treatment (long-term fluconazole and cream). Stopped all exersize, couldn't walk far, horrendously sore, stopped my daily activities. Never examined by my male Dr - just treated. Literally it's all I could think about, I've been stressed out of my mind. It's so sore and uncomfortable, literally ruining my life.
End of October: Ongoing vaginitis/thrush/still being treated for it with long-term fluconazole. Smear test results come back with low grade dyskiraisis(?) and HPV. More stress.
November: More symptoms uncontrolled. Pulling my hair out. No progress through this month.
December: Eventually had swabs done - came back positive for BV so I'd been treated for thrush 5-6 weeks. Put on Metronidoazole oral AND vaginal gel for 5 days over Christmas. Started clearing and had more swabs on day 3 of antibiotics which came back negative for bv and thrush, despite getting a thrush-like discharge after the gel. Spent Christmas Eve getting myself tested at the sexual health clinic (all came back fine) and new year's eve having blood tests re-taken there. Finished the course, period came half way through the course.
January: Had 3 days of feeling totally normal as my period had just finished. The first 3 days since October and then started having symptoms again. Swelling, purple labia, discharge etc. Spoke to Dr who prescribed more antibiotic vaginal gel to take the same night - another 5 day course. By day 3, I was so pink and still inflamed. Not the same colour as when the BV was bad, but itchy like thrush. Used canestan but started getting burning and irritation and washed it right off. Also had oral thrush in this period. Fluconazole not touched it either. Used natural yoghurt, PH balancing wash and anything that would possibly help, but nothing. I think I now have thrush caused by the antibiotics. Either that or I'm exactly back where I was this time last-menstrual cycle.
My instinct is that this is menstrual cycle related. Everyone keeps telling me it's all about the PH of my vagina but no one can tell me how to get it back to normal? My cycles last 5-6 days normally. It's honestly ruining my life. I'm going to head back to the sexual health clinic tomorrow as they can test for thrush and BV whilst you're there to try and get some clarification and advice on further treatment.
I have my colposcopy for my smear test next week, so I'm hoping to find something out there.
What's hardest is that no one seems to know why I'm suffering recurrently. I've had 3 days relief in almost 4 months and my GP surgery seem to view that as normal because it's 'safe to live with' and 'common amongst women'. I don't really know why I'm rambling on here... but I'm really looking for someone to talk to who understands. xxx
