New here, my V experience Re: Digest Number 6024

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I'm brand new, and I'm not sure I have the right address?

Sorry, what does BV stand for?

My history is that I have had chronic V (vulvodynia ) for a long time, the worst period of my life last year, but this year have miraculously cured myself (by accident and by intention)-- Hormonally. But I'm still curious to learn about it and share my experience as it kills me to know the pain people feel.

Sorry if my responses are a bit late, I haven't really gotten the whole group process down yet.

Lidocaine made me worse! I can't use anything like that, I'm not sure about the lidocaine ball, but I can't imagine it being too much different.

I pretty much don't use soaps anymore, but when I accidentally come into contact with them now they don't fire up my inflammation like they used to (shaving cream is my worst nightmare). Not using soap was an uncomfortable lifestyle change at first, but I don't think it's made me any less clean (how else did women survive before it was invented). Good old fashioned water rinse has to be the most natural/healthy.

I have tried almost everything, including the garlic, boric acid, and tea-tree oil with no relief! Vit E didn't help either.. pretty much nothing topical was helpful, and actually always more harmful.

In the end, it turns out my V was caused primarily from a pre-menopause state (and I was only 25 at the time). My hormones were so imbalanced, I missed my period for a year, started losing my hair, and had the worst V of my life (practically bed-ridden). My yeast infections are always hormonal now too... they are never caused by anything I eat or do down there... just what's going on in my body chemically/hormonally. They come and go 1-3days at a time. It's the weirdest thing, and I will find out from lab results next week which hormones are causing this exactly. I've been charting my temperature and all my symptoms for 9months now to determine where my problems are in my body, it really helped me narrow down this hormone thing. My friend had the exact same problem, turns out her V was hormone related too and she's taking the HRT route successfully. I hate artificial hormones (I feel like the BC pill is what got me into this mess

in the first place) but I've been using high quality vitamins to get my period regular, and now I'm virtually pain-free. I hope to free myself of them eventually too, but that's an ongoing effort.

I tried the low oxalate diet for a couple months strictly, and it oddly did seem to help just a little. But I didn't see the reason for me to live like that the rest of my life if I hadn't before without V. I felt like there had to be a better way.

I did botox too, but not for my V... for my headaches, and it didn't work at all. A lot of these treatments are bandaids, which I understand any kind of pain relief is a big deal. But truly, one has to look deeper at the underlying problem/health issue causing it. I just started writing a blog for the first time covering all my trials and errors over the last few years that has my full V story (too long to include here). I'm not a religious person, but I thank god every day I wakeup without V. It was the worst period of my life, my heart goes out to all of you.

I got all the mssgs at once (should I reply to each one of them individually in the future?)... Sorry if this message is a bit disjointed, it's past midnight here so I'm just off to bed...

Faf