Negligence in evaluation and treatment of vaginal infections

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone--

Now that I'm home from school I need to do a little more

venting/planning--Why is it that every f#$%ing time I have a yeast or

BV infection I have to go through hell and high water to get it

properly diagnosed? This is not the first time this has happened to

me. In fact, way back when all my issues started I had a wicked,

horrible yeast infection that was not diagnosed for five months. I

suffered immensely. And I know in my heart that that is what set me up

for pelvic pain--I KNOW it. Sure, other things piled on to eventually

push me over the edge, but that is by FAR the biggest insult that my

pelvis ever had AND it was entirely unnecessary. I saw 3+ docs at that

time who did not even do cultures, and could not tell me that I had

yeast even though my vaginal walls were covered in white yeast

bubbles. They just shrugged and said well obviously something is wrong

but we can't tell you what. Bye!

I mean really, what is the freaking problem? This is negligent. It is

cruel. It is devastating. With all of the technology that we have, and

all of the resources, why can they not do these simple tests and

LISTEN to us when we tell them we have symptoms?

This time I started having itching about 3-4 weeks ago. Itching is

definitely not a component of my usual pain, which was down to a

minimum. So I knew that something was up. I happened to have an

appointment already with my V doc so when I went to that I asked her

to check me out. She did do a yeast culture, but refused to check me

for BV. They called and said culture negative " nothing to worry

about, " meanwhile symptoms getting worse. So then I went to my primary

care doc, who is an integrative doc, and she actually felt that I

probably had BV based on appearance and the dramatic response the

symptoms had to vinegar. However, she still only did minimal testing

and couldn't tell me for sure. So then I went to the campus clinic and

asked for cultures (which she refused), Ph test (which she did), wet

prep (which she did), whiff test (which she would not do). For some

reason the clues showed up on the second wet prep, but not the first.

But the worst part is that the V doc, who is supposed to be the

specialist, refused to even DO testing.

What can be done about this? I am thankful that I am literate and have

access to resources to help myself figure all of this out--I shutter

to think about women who are not as lucky, how many of them must suffer.