Persistent infections and dryness

Infections
1

Hello everyone, hope you are all well. This is gonna be a rather longer post but I don't know where should I seek help anymore.

I used to be a healthy female (I'm currently 22yo) until I took BIRTH CONTROL pill (with estrogen) due to my PCOS. After just 2 weeks of taking it, I got yeast infection - before I have had it during my life till I was 21yo maybe 3 times and cleared up very easily, got tested on OB-GYN every year and got prescribed only pills which I needed. 

Back to the topic - I took BC pill and got yeast so obviously I went for cultures to OB-GYN- she took them, prescribed me pill (i had c. albicans). I took Macmiror that time, it didn't clear up the symtomps. I don't need to mention I eat probiotics and I almost never eat sugar and don't douche, never use even feminine products and also wipe front-back. My diet was very strict at that time too. So I went back right after anti mycotic treatment - cultures came back POSITIVE for c.albicans. I felt no RELIEF even after 12 days of anti mycotic treatment. I was still on pill at that time. She prescribed me oral itraconazole for 3 days, I took it - no improvement, insane itching, white chunks and cracks on vagina, couldn't even sleep from inflamed tissue. OBGYN thought I have bad reaction to MACMIROR but I knew it wasn't the case ... I went back right after 3 days of itraconazole and got tested cultures again - POSITIVE for c. albicans. At that time she said there is nothing she can prescribe me anymore and sent me home with GYNOFLOR. Of course I couldn't even sleep and went to GP at hospital to ER. They did some douche and also prescribed me nystatin ovules. I took them and NOTHING changed. At that time I stopped taking BC pill ( it was 1 month and 12 days after I started taking it!!!), got period and during that week I felt somewhat better, but still infected. After the period stopped symptomps came right away back with full blown candida infection. cryI forgot to mention I had no sexual life at all! 

I was being suicidal because of the pain,I had insanely inflamed tissue and no one was being able to do anything for me, nothing was calming it down, cultures never came back negative and I had insane itch/pain/inflammed tissue. I let it be for a while but it didn't improve, I used to sleep 1 hr /night due to pain. I ended up visiting different OBGYN, went to immunologist - my tests didn't show anything abnormal. OBGYN tested my to come back with c.albicans infection again and prescribed fenticonazole nitrate. I took medicine and then got period and took another pill (2 pills in total, 1 1st day, another 3rd day). I felt somewhat broken, tissue was in horrible condition after that and then I started doing a lot of weird alternative therapies as a last resort. That kinda helped and when I got tested after month i was clear in cultures, BUT I felt totally dry. Was prescribed lactobacillus live culture pills with estriol, took them for 2 weeks, but it didn't help at all! Now I have insane dryness persisting for months without relief during day  - during sex it works fine, but during day I itch as crazy and even those hydrating gels don't help. I hate to imagine I am gonna be like this till I die because I once took BC pill which completely messed my body, hormones up. I don't know what to do and never found anyone who was basically resistant to all treatments. A few days ago I found out after being tested at OBG that I have c. albicans infection again, got prescribed fenticonazole, took it, and feel the same dryness/ itchiness, nothing helped, even lactobacilli etc in pills vaginally. Doing nothing is not an option, I'm taking alternative herbs from my alternative therapist but it's a long term and gonna take a lot of time. I don't get what could happen to change my healthy, moisturized (during day) vag to this after few BC pills. Guess I'm one in milliard or something, I have never heard anything like this.. it makes me frustrated and my life became just constant worry about getting another infection on which won't work anything, or being dry as savana till I die because I took that damned BC pill.

Also I need to mention I got UTI yday out of sudden after yeast treatment - I didn't do anything, was at home, drank enough, took my daily dole of probiotics... now taking antibiotics due to severe pain and gonna take probiotics few hours later so I don 't flare up with another yeast infection which would make me want to kill myself.

Thanks for hearing me cry

2

Dear Misaka, I know exactly what you are going through. Back in 2013 I had persistent and recurring yeast infections (c. Albicans) for around 6 months. Like you, this was due to hormonal changes (for me, it was entering premenopause). My skin down there was inflammed, sore, burning and splitting. Appearently when such an infection is persistent you can become allergic to the infection, which makes the skin react badly. In my case this onslaught of infection, plus home remedies that I tried (DON’T use home remedies - they made the pain much worce) resulted in me getting vulvodynia which I had for 2 years. Tests showed that I was eventually clear of infection, but because I was still in pain from the vulvodynia I don’t know when the infection went away but I think what cured it was taking oral fluconazole tablets  (50mg) every day for 1 month. I don’t know what country you are in but in the U.K. the usual method is to try a single 150mg fluconazole tablet, if that doesn’t work then take another 3 days later. If that doesn’t work they try using a smaller dose every day for an extended period (50mg every day for 2 weeks, then 50mg for a month).

I saw a dermatology consultant for the vulvodynia and she said it was important for me not to get a yeast infection again and she said that in persistent cases she found that you really need to step up the dose, so I had to take 100mg oral fluconazole per day for a week - I still did get yeast infections every few months but that 100mg per day for a week cured it. For women who do get recurrent thrush it is also advisable to take fluconazole prophylactically (a single 150mg dose once a week or once a month). Now things have settled down for me hormone-wise, taking 150mg dose once a month seems to have kept the infection at bay and I haven’t had it for a while.

i hope that helps.

3

Oh, I forgot to say that I found coconut oil soothes the irritation. It is also naturally antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial. I have vaginal dryness now due to menopause and the coconut oil really helps with that too. A lot of  women who have vaginal dryness find that coconut oil helps and also vitamin e oil. I apply coconut internally and externally every time I use the toilet. I apply vit e oil (break open an oral capsule of 400iu) once a day and when I go to bed I insert a vit e pessary which works overnight (Carlson key e pessaries). 

4

Oh, I forgot to say that I found coconut oil soothes the irritation. It is also naturally antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial. I have vaginal dryness now due to menopause and the coconut oil really helps with that too. A lot of  women who have vaginal dryness find that coconut oil helps and also vitamin e oil. I apply coconut internally and externally every time I use the toilet. I apply vit e oil (break open an oral capsule of 400iu) once a day and when I go to bed I insert a vit e pessary which works overnight (key e pessaries). 

5

Thanks a lot for input Suki girl!

 I am 100% convicted my infections and dryness are caused by unique reaction of my body (hormonal imbalance due to BC pill) and I believe it can reverse back to normal after time - it has been 7 months and at least right now I don't experience inflamed tissue down there anymore although it's still very dry during day. 

I don't really use any home remedies anymore, I tried hydrogen peroxide which made me feel even WORSE. I just take a lot of probiotics and drink home made kefir and have well balanced diet + I take herbal supplements to support vaginal and urinary health. 

The problem is I'm from Slovak republic and health care here is completely different than UK (including drugs). You never get prescribed oral anti mycotic as first line drug - always ovules as first line. I got prescribed itraconazole orally which is basically even stronger than fluconazole. That didn't help unfortunately. The issue is they refused to test sensitivity for c. albicans because it's rare to have resistance to this pathogen (it's the most common candida sensitive to any anti mycotic). I can't explain why these anti mycotics never worked, but it seemed like it has to do something with those synthetic hormones I took which again wrecked havoc on my body. 

I would rather not take any oral systematic anti mycotic drug since I'm trying to avoid drugs due to negative effect I experience if I take anything syntetic and also due to my past experiences with how ineffective they were for me. Glad to see that it helped you though.

I was clear of infection 2 months and then had infection for 3months (without knowing difference because I get those white chunks & itching even without infection)... it didn't inflame my tissue and even OBGYN after checking me down there said he thinks this is hormonal imbalance rather than infection ( it was again infection though ). 

I tried applying coconut oil in the past, maybe I will try organic coconut oil again. I'm thinking of this vitamin E oil capsule as you adviced and will look into it more, but the market is limited here with these stuff. Hope it will help...

 

6

Make sure the coconut oil is pure, organic, cold pressed and virgin.

It is interesting that you get the discharge without the infection. Even after the tests indicated that I no longer had infection, every now and then I would get a thick creamy discharge which stung me. The gynaecologist tested this discharge as well a high vaginal swab and it showed no infection. He couldn’t really tell me what it was it what was causing it. When he looked indsude my vagina he said it appeared to be coming out of my cervix (i.e. from my uterus). He just said it must be due to hormone inbalance (premenopause). It eventually stopped. Sometimes these things are unexplainable ....