I’m 4 months post treatment and dealing w menopause symptoms which was helped by systematic HRT in terms of intensity and hot flushes frequency but I was wondering how I can help my vaginal tissues heal. I am doing the dilators 3 times a week although my vagina has definitely shortened due to scarring it’s still ok girth-wise as I’m using the biggest dilator size now. My question is would the vaginal HRT help? I still get some tender side when I’m doing dilators accompanied by blood stained discharge sometime after using them. Any experience w vaginal estrogen? Please share your experience as I’m considering it. Thank you in advance. Much love to you all. xx
I started using vaginal cream (Ovestin) about a year ago and it’s helped me a lot. Since using the cream my internal examinations have been pain free - much to my amazement since even the smallest speculum has been agonising since my late 40s (I’m now mid 60s). I haven’t used dilators since using the cream so can’t comment about that. I was initially prescribed the cream to help with urethral soreness and bleeding during self catheterisation (my radical hysterectomy caused me to have long term urinary retention) and the cream helped to improve that a lot.
Personally I don’t like the applicator that comes with the cream so I apply using a finger - works well for me.
I’m also have systemic HRT (patches) but only started very recently so I’m sure it was the vaginal cream which made all the
difference.
I started using vaginal estrogen cream just over a year ago and I call it my magic cream. It’s amazing stuff and I don’t understand why it’s not something that’s given routinely after having procedures like the brachytherapy. I am now 3 1/2 years post treatment and I feel like I can live like me again. I still use my dilator. It just makes everything in that area feel normal. Hope that helps.
Thank you for letting me know about this. I’m still considering asking for a prescription for this as I’m 6 months post treatment and still get some spotting with dilators and a feeling like there’s a raw patch inside. Did it help you in terms of that? I heard it also help with dryness, is this true? Thank you and I’m happy to hear you’re doing great 3 1/2 years after treatment. Much love.xx
I feel it helped me with everything in that area. Local estrogen is real important for all that area and not just our lady bits. I stopped waking up for a wee several times during the night. I stopped feeling bloated after food. I first started vaginal estrogen cream to help me stop bleeding and at that time I wasn’t taking HRT. I had done the post menopause thing for 2 years suffering in silence with it all. After starting this cream it made me realise why I needed my hormones at my age, a pure light bulb moment for me and I have never looked back. You are only 6 months post treatment. It’s very early days and recovery is tough. I feel the cream has healed me and I can now use my lady bits again like I did before. At first I found doing self care down there as I call it embarrassing but now I see it as a must and just part of my daily routines. There’s a very interesting video on utube that really helped me. If I can find the link later I will try and put on here somehow. Also read about me and my menopausal vagina book. It’s an interesting read and a must for every woman. It will give you that push and strength to ask for the cream. Hope that helps.
Just realised I haven’t answered your question does estrogen cream help with dryness? I would say yes give it a try. For me I felt the opposite. I felt constantly wet all the time. Clinic would ask me if I was having issues with dryness and I would think if only! Before starting the cream I thought how is adding moisture to an already wet mess gonna improve things but it did. You use the cream daily for 2- 3 weeks and everything feels like a wet yucky mess but also sort of improved and then after that you reduce to twice weekly reaping the benefits of it. I had issues with bleeding with contact such as using my dilator. I started using the cream feb 2021 and stopped bleeding dec 2021 so stick with it. Hope that answers your questions.
Thank you for this information it’s really helpful. I still get some bleeding or pink spotting w dilator use and I feel like some areas in there that are very friable that bleeds in contact. So I’m really considering asking my doctor for a vaginal HRT to help tissue heal because at my recent check up my oncologist said the tissues there are visibly so much thinner. So I was wondering if it would help. I’m happy to hear it helped in your case. Will talk about this w my consultant. Much love. Xx
