I’m not a religious person, but I literally wakeup every morning thanking God for being Vulvodynia-free. It was the biggest challenge I have ever faced in my life, and I'm not sure how I got through it alive. I know exactly what it’s like to feel like you’re the only one; in fact, it wasn’t until after my cure that I even met someone else with the disease. I also know exactly what it’s like to have so many doctors and people dismiss it, telling you it’s psychological or stress-related, to the point you wonder if you’ve gone crazy yourself.
I tried everything. I tried to stay positive. I built myself up, coaching myself and wanting to believe “this is the treatment, this is the one that’s going to cure me!” The curse of staying positive and hopeful through every new treatment is that you fall that much harder every time it fails. The first ten tries, you can pick yourself up. But after 20 different hopes, your heart begins to lose faith.
Reports always insinuated it would just magically go away some day. But the amount of pain, the amount of time, and the amount of failed trials begged to differ. I quit my job and devoted my life to solving Vulvodynia, convinced I could find something to make me normal again. If not, I would die trying. The pain was not just debilitating or a compromise of health, it was a non-option.
One can never be sure when all of this begins. Some experts say it can start with trauma (psychological or physical), others with first penetration, it could have genetic components, external influences (creams or allergens), and even be related to other infections and imbalances in the body like yeast, bacteria, or hormones. This is why I start my story at the very beginning.
Nobody’s family is perfect, and my upbringing had some particularly tough times (psychologically and physically). But I doubt it was substantial enough to be any different than the sufferings of mankind as a whole. I personally don’t pick my childhood out as a culprit.
The first time I had sex was against my will, and somewhat forced. I know I had said, “No” before and made it absolutely clear I didn’t want to have sex, but in shock at the time all I could muster up in a shaken, scared voice was “what are you doing?” I don’t know that it was rape in the conventional violent sense. I was 15 and he was my 25 year-old boyfriend. I didn’t have the mental capacity to physically remove myself from the situation. It was only statutory rape. Needless to say, my heart and my faith were pretty broken up about it. That’s just the psychological side, but physically it also hurt. Some experts claim this is a determining factor in Vulvodynia. But in reality, whenever you break skin (namely a hymen) and bleed it’s not going to feel good. Physically, I could walk just fine the next day. But I didn’t walk with my head held high for a while. This wasn't the only encounter I had with unwanted sexual attention. School-boys were always copping feels and trying to go out of my "comfort" zone. Further molestation cases ran rampant. Unfortunately, many young girls are taken advantage of this way and throughout life.
This kind of intimidated sex continued on until one day I decided I would just accept it and give in. Heck, I already lost my virginity—why not make the most of it!? So I did, and really got onto it. I was determined not to let anything get me down. My Vulvodynia had yet to begin and overall I was a pretty happy person. I don’t even tell doctors or psychologists this half the story anymore because they give it too much attention. In all seriousness, it didn’t plague me long. Yes I was emotional initially, but I was still quite happy and “relatively” healthy.
I had chronic bladder infections from the time I first started having sex at 15. The late-night emergency room visits drove me suicidal from the pain. Antibiotic after antibiotic, yeast infection after yeast infection, I was beginning to wonder if I had something wrong with my anatomy down there. Perhaps the pieces just weren’t in the right place. All the turmoil down there left me a bit scarred and with a diagnosis of interstitial cystitis (IC) by the time I was 21. I still don’t know what that is exactly (How can you when you don’t even know what causes it or every other doctor tells you something different). I suppose IC could be a lot of things, but I also think it could have very well been the beginning of my Vulvodynia. With another year of antibiotics and no sex, somehow most of the pain with sweat and urine seemed to go away! What a relief, …or so I thought.
Slowly but surely, I became less and less interested in sex. My new boyfriend was wondering what was up, I was wondering what was up. I even tried to blame it on him at one point! I thought maybe he just wasn’t performing or enticing me enough, I thought maybe I had just become bored. How awful, I had been a sex-fiend before! The pain was so subtle at first, it had crept in without me realizing how or why. Sex had become uncomfortable enough over time that it disguised itself as a general lack of interest. I ended up hating condoms, but not because it took away the good feelings. I started blaming them on the bad feelings. I thought “ah-ha!” I must be allergic to condoms (maybe latex) “this must be the reason why I don’t want to have sex anymore.” So we researched other birth-control methods because I desperately did not want to be on the “pill” again. The pill seemed far too chemical and artificial to put into my body. I had already been on and off it years before and hated it. Unfortunately, the evil pill ended up being our only choice.
The birth control pill helped the pain a little at first, but what I didn’t know was that artificial hormones are only partially bio-active in the body. It could mimic some of the natural hormone effects but not all (leaving my body deficient in some areas). Worst of all, supplementing fake hormones tricked my body into thinking it had enough which inhibits the natural production of its own real hormones. The pain started to get worse over time. I didn’t want to believe it, so I just kept having sex anyway. It sounds stupid, but I felt inadequate as a girlfriend not being able to “put out.” I started to consider it was all in my head too, and that if I just pushed through it, I would get over it. So I just kept gritting my teeth during sex until I one day I started to bleed from micro tears in the labia. Although it was excruciatingly painful and scary, blood was sadly what I needed to prove to myself and my boyfriend—look I’m not crazy!!! This pain I feel is real!!! Blood couldn’t be psychological! Now I could justify yet another trip to the gynecologist.
“Vestibulitus!” (The typical q-tip test) Wow, a real diagnosis! Not the greatest thing to be excited over, but I was just so relieved to know what it was… Knowing is half the battle, right? Knowing what it was gave me hope for a cure, which inevitably led to more disappointment. My prescription: No sex (again), she was very emphatic about this one (of course, this made me want it even more). Painfully cleaning through the nasty little spots in the shower was the 2nd part, while also applying Nystatin cream morning, evening, and after every shower. The cream stung for the first week and then mostly became routine. My Gynocologist’s theory was that those little crevices of pain might be harboring yeast that were ultimately causing irritation. The cream didn’t seem to help much, but the daily cleaning actually did. I’m not so sure the cleansing itself had anything to do with it, as it felt more like the skin was being de-sensitized to touch. It would hurt really bad at first, and then minutes later the pain would have lessoned (seemingly out of numbness).
Two weeks later, she put me additionally on SSRI’s for a month because some studies had shown serotonin interacting with the vulvar pain path. Although the medication didn’t do a thing for my vestibulitus AND made me more emotional, they did completely take away my IBS. After a few more months of rubbing out those spots in the shower, I was ready to test my luck again. My gynecologist prescribed lidocaine to help with any sensitive areas left. Well, that was a HUGE mistake! It stung like the worst bee in the last place you’d ever want hit. Definitely no sex that night.
On top of all this, I was gearing up for a year-long trip overseas and thankfully wouldn’t need “chemical” birth control anymore. I don’t even know if my body was really cured and ready but we were desperate to get some intimacy in. First time having sex again was a bit painful still, but the mere excitement to be doing it after so long carried me right through any discomfort. We had a blast! And then I paid for it dearly the very next day with another dreaded bladder infection! This was an absolute nightmare. After not having sex for almost a year (and bad sex before that) now I was temporarily out of service again. What I thought was temporary ended up being the worst year of my life.
The first round of antibiotics (my typical Macrobid buddy) didn’t seem to be working. Tests revealed no bacteria, but as usual I was still in pain. I talked them into bumping me up to a heavier dose of Cipro. No relief, so I just tried to wait it out. It didn’t really get worse, but it didn’t get better either. I went to more gynecologists and had more tests done. No results! What could be causing all this pain then (I really didn’t want to believe it was interstitial cystitus all over again!) The gyno tried to claim that it was an “undetectable” yeast infection—she was sure of it! She prescribed me all the usual heavy yeast creams and pills and sent me off. They burned beyond belief! They burned me to tears, it didn’t make sense that something this painful could really be helping me. But she convinced me to keep pushing through it every night for a month! It only got worse.
My entire vulvar tissue was so inflamed, I finally rebelled against everything and resigned not to allow ANYthing down there again. I knew in my heart it wasn’t yeast (I’ve had yeast before, I know what that’s like) and now I was in so much worse shape. The tissue was so red, raw, and swollen, I took pictures of it throughout the day for comparison. I was constantly applying ice and walking around with wet tissues stuffed in my underwear. The pain was so unbearable I couldn’t even really walk, let alone stand. With only days before my flight overseas, I laid out in my gyno’s office balling. She hugged me and patted my tears. I felt like she somehow knew the pain I was in and was really there for me, even though I wanted to hate her for not being able to help me. She could only leave me with a further-inflamed vulva and a diagnosis of Vulvodynia.
Since coming off the pill, my menstrual cycles were never really normal again and then they just completely went away. At 25 years old, I essentially went into a state of menopause for about a year. The headaches were chronic and cyclical every day, and so was the vulvar pain. I relentlessly scoured the internet almost every day looking for treatments, therapies, hope. It often left me sobbing in fear. I couldn’t bare the pain one more day, how was I supposed to bare the thought of it never going away!?
I tried the non-oxalate diet. It may have helped a little, but wasn’t conclusive enough. I must have checked more than 30 plus drugstores in broken-English and there wasn’t ANY Calcium Citrate to be found abroad. But none of these treatments made sense anyway. I didn’t have to be on a special diet before when I was healthy, so why now. I was looking for more than a temporary treatment, or a drug I would have to take the rest of my life. I wasn’t even really looking for a cure, I was just trying so hard to get my body back to the way it was naturally.
I contracted quite a few infections as many people do in 3rd-world countries. The antibiotics (amoxicillin) I took for the infections often also took my vulvar pain away. It was really very strange. As soon as I would come off the antibiotics (the very next day) the pain would be back with a vengeance! This made me wonder if there was really something bacterial down there even though ALL the tests ALWAYS came back negative.
I tried everything: Fasting and detoxification (colonics and all), elimination diets, and raw-food diets. I visited other types of doctors, allergists, naturopaths, nurse practitioners, muscle-testers, acupuncturists, herbalists, and nutritionists. I did yoga and special exercises for months. I tried counseling and emotional therapies because some experts will say we’re holding negative emotions inside that display as physical pain. I really didn’t think I had any problems here, but I was so desperate I learned to love my enemies even more and confront the people that caused emotional harm to forgive them. Every day I meditated, used the power of positive thinking, and envisioned my inflammation gone. I even envisioned having sex that felt good (which is really hard to do when you’re in a lot of pain). I worked on eliminating every last ounce of stress from my life. I fanned my “area” dry every day. I stopped wearing underwear. I tried so hard people thought my problem might be from trying too hard. I was asked to embrace the pain and thank it for sharing, to let go, and everything would get better. Well, that didn’t work either.
My lack of periods had to be hormonal, and I really started to suspect my Vulvodynia was an effect of this extreme hormonal imbalance. I desperately didn’t want to do hormone replacement therapy (HRT) because I felt the birth control pill (artificial hormones) is what had gotten me into this mess in the first place. I started working on natural approaches to get my hormones re-balanced. On advice from a naturopath, I took Angelica sinensis in the wholesome plant-form from the local Chinese herb shop. Later I found out it is the same thing as Dong Quai (usually found in the pill or tea form).
The following month I started noticing extra hair in my hand after touching my head. Then I noticed my hair everywhere, in my bed, in the bathroom. I thought “I must be crazy, I’m probably just focusing on it” so I tried to ignore it. I knew if I brought it up, no one would believe me anyway. Over the course of a few days it got so bad I couldn’t trick myself out of noticing it anymore. I knew I was losing my hair. I brought it up with my travel partner and sure enough she, along with everyone else, just dismissed me as making things up. It wasn’t until I actually could start to show bald spots that people finally started listening. It was a really upsetting time. My hair had been long and full since I was a kid; it had never been cut except for trims. My hair is literally like another limb. The whole thing was so devastating. Little did I know at the time, hair loss often occurs with an extreme hormone shift.
It wasn’t until my period came back with a bang (a horrible but wonderful moment) that my life started to change. I was in so much physical pain (after not having a period for almost a year), I couldn’t even walk from the dizziness. I got a little scared that I might just pass out in this 3rd world country where there were no real hospitals around. Despite the pain, I was ecstatic to be having a period! I felt like a little girl going through puberty all over again. I even abruptly gained weight—it all had to be hormonal. I can’t say for sure whether it was the herbs, or any one specific approach, but my travel partner was having her period at the same time. I thank her for giving me the final trigger! The most amazing thing is that my vulvar pain immediately and noticeably started to fade! I could not believe it! It was still bad, but I could walk fearlessly again. I could even start working again. Every day got better and better, but was still not pain-free. By the time I made it back to America to see my boyfriend I was still in no shape to have sex. But I was happy to finally be on the right track. I focused on my hormones. I dieted for them, I took supplements for them, I exercised for them. It all seemed to help a little more. Then, things really started to improve when I began taking a set of high quality vitamins. My menstrual cycle regulated the only perfect 28-day cycle I’ve seen in my life! It was completely natural!!! More importantly, my vulvodynia completely went away!
I’m a scientist by nature and by training. I like to have control over my life. Vulvodynia threatened who I was. It forced me to take a fine-tooth comb over every aspect of my body and my health. I ended up tracking my symptoms meticulously everyday for 9 months. I graphed chart by chart, month by month, and throughout the year to identify trends and patterns. I learned things my doctors couldn’t have told me, I learned things that none of my test results would show. I learned that my Vulvodynia and headaches were caused by a major hormonal imbalance and every detail about it. Piece by piece I was eventually able to cure myself. I’m sure there are a lot of causes that build up, but I primarily blame the “pill” for what happened to me. It was the most extreme hormone disruption I’ve introduced to my body and I’m not sure I will ever fully recover.
The first day I had sex again I cried. But this time it wasn’t because I was in pain. The uncontrollable tears came from what felt like years of my life lost to finally having a chance to live a pain-free life. I don’t know how I got through it, there were times I really felt like letting go. It was the most horrible period of my life and all I want to do now is help women from ever going through the torture I went through to be cured.
I thought about being a doctor as I know first-hand there’s a dire niche to be filled. I wanted to makeup for all the help I didn’t receive. I decided to help on even a grander scale. Fortunately I came across another scientific team of like-minds who have also suffered too much from these debilitating conditions. Research is chronically under-funded and we knew we could do more to help it go faster in and outside the lab. CureTogether.com brings patients, doctors, and researchers together to share what’s working and what’s not real-time. We felt like we could have suffered a lot less if we only knew what treatments others were trying and what experiments had already failed. A patient’s fate wouldn’t have to only rely on what one or two doctors knew. But more than reviews, we specifically wanted to open up research to everyone. Symptoms could be tracked over time and evaluated in graphs to find unique problem areas. Patients could have the option to anonymously compare their results and graphs with others to learn even more. The possibilities are endless. Because of our personal experience with Vulvodynia and lack of adequate resources, it was one of the first conditions studied: http://www.curetogether.com/Vulvodynia/
As for my life now, I am still working on alternative ways to naturally balance my hormones. I eat 100% organic, mostly raw food but still a portion amount of protein every meal. I avoid endocrine disruptors as much as possible, and I avoid ANYthing that could interfere with my natural hormone balance (including foods like soy or other oestrogenic components). I drink only fresh purified water with minerals, and bought an expensive air-filter. To some this may seem paranoid. But for anyone who has been through the kind of pain Vulvodynia creates, you know better. After going through hell and back with my body, I’m allowed to be hypersensitive. Regardless of what life throws at me from this point onward, I will never forget the day my Vulvodynia was cured.
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Add a Comment91 Comments
Also can i ask what you mean by 'bg'? Thank you
April 10, 2015 - 7:48amThis Comment
Thank you for your comment. I havent been tested for diabetes no, is that something you didnt know you had until you had the vulvodynia pain and then found out you had diabetes? I was told the same thing by a nurse when i was rushed into hospital through taking an overdose because i could not handle to pain anymore, id had enough! When you say much better? Do you mean the pain has gone down alot??
April 9, 2015 - 8:41amThis Comment
Hi, yes it has gone down tremendously! If I were you I would buy a Bg meter and test your blood sugar. Bg= blood glucose. High blood glucose levels caused by type1 diabetes were causing a lot of my v symptoms. I went to multiple doctors and none of them diagnosed it or tested for it until I was near death and in DKA. I had serious complications in the icu I'm lucky I survived. My vulvadynia isn't gone but it's so much better. Not sure if I'll ever be able to have intercousre again though and I have no relationship. When you get vilvadynia you find out what most men put first- it's not you or love unfortunately. I hope one day I will have some sort of sex life again. Fortunately I can use a clitoral stimulater at least without too much irritation. I never like intercourse that much anyway & now with the pain it's not worth it for me.
April 20, 2015 - 12:05pmThis Comment
Hi again, i have gotten tested for diabetes since i last wrote and have been told that my bloods are normal so im guessing i dont have it :/ was kind of hoping i did tbh considering you were saying its gone down tremendously..Im glad your symptoms have gone down alot....i am in a relationship and i do find it very painful for intercourse most of the time as i am in pain all the time. but the doctors prescribed me lidocaine ointment 5% i put that on before intercourse and it really does make a difference, i have hardly no soreness after and dont feel that much burning, i am able to sleep after sex when putting on the lidocaine. Hope this helps with you
May 5, 2015 - 1:13pmThis Comment
Hi Tyler, I am glad you don't have diabetes, and you should be too, really you don't want to have any type of diabetes. I'm sorry that you still have no cause for the vulvadynia yet. That is good that you can have intercourse with the lidocaine, however if I were you I would stop having it until you figure out what is going on because it is only going to keep aggravating the situation.
I was not able to have intercourse without significant pain with lidocaine or anything else. The last time I had intercourse I had to take vicodin before and put ice on my vulva after and I was still burning like crazy for hours, lidocaine, vicodin, ice etc. I've tried it all and nothing helps except the low estrogen cream/waterbased that I used 2x per week. I have to not have any type of abrasion to the area and do all the other things that help me: no underwear, wash area with water after urination, drink lots of water, avoid all contact with that area. The base of my vagina is shrinking now I'm in full meno and the tissue is thinner etc.
In addition the doc who has still been treating me who was one of the MANY docs who failed to diagnose my diabetes which nearly killed me and caused serious complications has now written a bunch of nasty stuff about me in my file: sent to me by accident. Saying this is emotionally based because none of the treatments have helped me. I will be making a complaint about him eventually. All I can say is be very careful about your doctors, you never know what they are writing in your file and saying about you to others. I have tried every treatment out there but surgery and stretching/pt and botox. Just the thought of having an injection there makes me wince. I don't ever want to go back to what I was, it was SOOO BAD. All the other treatments are problematic for me, like lyrica, elavil, etc.- even topical elavil gave me side effects. Those drugs make me very dopey and" psychotic" feeling and lyrica didn't help my pain at all, probably partly because what I needed was insulin. I had taken that for chronic pain from injuries before and it wasn't helpful then either. Antihistamines helped but again, very dopey and bad mood effects. Being on insulin has helped the most but of course I need that to stay alive now too.
My guess is there is nerve damage from the diabetes which is also causing the symptoms I still have along with menopause and thinning skin etc. - I have neuropathy which causes pain in my hands and feet and many other bad effects from type 1 even with relatively well controlled bg. I just wonder if surgery to replace the tissue there would help me? I would never try it though because I have heard many horror stories about how women are worse with that. Unfortunately unless I find a man who is ok without intercourse I will end up alone for the rest of my life most likely. It is not worth it to me to be in that kind of pain again- not sure how I lived with that constant burning and pain and everything else. But the insulin and normalized bg has helped me a great deal thank god. So at least I am free from the constant pain etc. I just can't believe what I went through and how many doctors I went to and they all f****** up big time and now one or more for all know is bad mouthing me. I have talked to many other people about what happened to me and to one of my former, now retired doctors, who is now a friend who all told me I should have sued them. I did threaten to sue the hospital where I was treated when my insurance refused to pay for my second stay with a dvt. They had released me from the icu with a dvt and other blood clots, I returned the next day. They ended up absorbing the costs which were $25, 000 for the second stay.
Another thing you need to do is buy your own bg monitor at walmart and test your bg yourself because in the beginning you can have normal fasting bg tests and still have diabetes. I had -3 normal tests in the few years before my dka, one six months before, but when I had severe yeast infections my bg would have been sky high because yeast feeds on sugar. Test your fasting test in the am, eat a meal and test 2 hours later. Normal bg will be 80-90 2 hours after and low 80's fasting. For a glucose tolerance test, do a fasting am test, drink 80g of carbs/ sugar, such as juice, and test every 1/2 hour for 4-5 hours, see how high you go and if you go low later. A lot of people have reactive hypos in the beginning of diabetes. If you go above 200 you have a problem and then you should go to an endo to be evaluated.
Believe me I have tried nearly EVERY FRICKING THING FOR THIS CRAP SITUATION!! lol... including contemplating putting vinegar and listerine on my vjj because someone else said that helped them when what I had was type 1 diabetes causing most of my symptoms which were not only the vulvodynia symptoms.. unbelievable. I remember one night the itching was sooo bad I couldn't bare it and I put anti-fungal foot cream on my vagina which barely helped. I was in bed for 3 days with a severe yeast infection with a rash 3 weeks before dka and ANOTHER gyn failed to do testing on me again, when I called back to say diflucan wasn't helping he told me to go to my other doctor!! I didn't do that because I was so busy and sick and then ended up in the hospital, after my gp who I finally went to failed to hospitalize me immediately. He has admitted to one of my relatives who still goes to him that he made a big mistake.
You have to do your own research and not really trust anyone else with your health. Because in the end some of them are smiling to your face while they write a bunch of crap about you in their files and failing to do basic simple tests to see if something systemic is going on. One doctor charged me $350 for a dumb ass dna test for his research which wasn't covered by insurance when what he should have done was do a blood panel on me- I would have been diagnosed 2 years before I ended up in the icu.
May 6, 2015 - 2:59amThis Comment
wow your journey sounds horrrible and kind of the same as mine, you have the same attitude about all of this as me .. CRAP SITUATION! its inhumain for doctors to be leaving any lady in this amount of pain on a daily basis. I have tried killing myself because i CANNOT DEAL WITH IT ANYMORE. I am in pain without a doubt on a daily basis and there is nothing, no pain relief, no cream, nothing that helps me so i just have to bare with it.
My doctors a few years ago put me on a constant prescription of morphiene which i used to get every now and then when the pain was that bad, baring in mind the pain has been very bad for a longgg time now and just isnt going down i have for a while been taking morphiene quite alot, more than i should, it has got to the point where i am just taking gulps out of the bottle instead of little sips .. i am now very badly addicted to it and when i dont take it its the most horriblest thing for me, i have body spasms that i cannot control, i cant relax, i sweat, shake, its genuinly like i am someone coming off of heroin, which is morphiene! The doctors have now stopped prescribing me it 'for my own good' and i have tramadol which does nothing... i am researching alot lately because i am trying to find anything possible that i can do to TAKE THIS PAIN AWAY!!!!! i dont know who i am anymore...all i do is sit in my bed, on the toilet .. in pain. Its ruining me.
Are you saying that even tho i have been tested for diabetes that i still could have it???? a few people have said that insulin have helped them alot because there body was lacking the glucose?? i dont know much about diabetes myself. but alot of women have sais that since taking there insulin the symptoms have near enough gone :/
Would you be able to explain a few things about diabetes for me as i have no clue and what do i have to do to find out if i definately dont have it because i dont trust the doctors word. They are far from good doctors! Thankyou for your reply.
What are you doing now for the pain??? or do you not really have any??? can you also tell me what it is that has made the pain ease alot because of the insulin, why is this???
May 8, 2015 - 10:48amThis Comment
Hi Tyler,
I'm so sorry that you are suffering so much. My pain isn't anywhere near as bad as yours, even when it was at its worst, although it was pretty debilitating. I have never needed heavy duty painkillers. I just took vicodin when it got really bad occasionally and did all of the other things I mentioned.
Just read all my suggestions for monitoring your bg and you will figure out quickly if something is wrong and if it could be affecting your symptoms. No one is going to put you on insulin unless you have type 2 and are at the stage to need it or you have type 1. Insulin isn't a solution for vulvodynia but if you have diabetes and it is affecting your pain etc. treating the high bg will help you. I would say my pain is cut by a huge margin now and life is much more bearable. I do have pain and flair ups still but I haven't needed to take a pain killer for them and it's not anywhere near as bad or as constant- I still have to do all of the things I started doing that helped me when it was really bad though. During a flair up I usually use the estrogen cream more frequently, drink a lot more water( I already drink tons), wear skirts and avoid any friction on the area and get more rest. That seems to help me. I have also noticed that eating flax seed seems to help produce cervical mucus at one point so that may help too, it produces estrogen in the body.
There are two basic type of diabetes: type 1 caused by autoimmunity and destruction of beta cells and the ability to produce insulin and type 2 of unknown cause as of yet, which is often characterized by metabolic syndrome: high cholesterol, insulin resistance, weight gain and other symptoms/issues- eventually leading to destruction of beta cells. There is also MODY which is a genetically caused type of diabetes which has its own subset of types.
If you have high bg that can cause low level yeast infections and chronic inflammation through out the body. The urinary symptoms and irritation are typical for women with diabetes and also happen when you start to go into menopause which is partly why women tend to ignore other possible causes of their symptoms and assume it is purely menopause. External Insulin helps regulate your bg when your body isn't producing enough insulin to metabolize glucose either due to lack of insulin or insulin resistance. Controlled bg would mean less inflammation, less or no yeast infections and so on- yeast is a fungus which feeds off of sugar. It is very common for women to have severe yeast infections as insulin production drops or the ability to use your own insulin is impaired and blood glucose levels are high. Many people have pre diabetes or diabetes and don't realize it and it doesn't always show up in a fasting or non fasting test. Early on your bg levels may be fluctuating before you get chronically high levels. In type 2 the fasting bg level is often normal while after meal numbers are very high- eating of carbohydrate causes jumps because there isn't enough insulin or you can't use the insulin the you produce well enough to metabolize glucose.
So in other words if you don't have insulin to metabolize food and get the glucose into your cells, it stays in your blood and wreaks havoc on your body causing infection, organ damage, damage to vessels and nerves and more. Eventually if you have type 1 you will go into dka due to total lack of insulin and die, for type 2 your bg will keep going higher and higher and you can go into a coma and or die from stroke and cvd if the diabetes isn't diagnosed. Normal bg levels are 80-90, when your body is working properly it always keeps your bg levels at that range not usually going above 120 unless you eat a very high carb meal. Even if you don't have diabetes you may also get some relief by cutting carbs from your diet: sugars/rice/starchy foods, soda and so on. Also try eliminating anything with wheat. I have a wheat sensitivity and I have found eliminating gluten has helped me, specifically wheat seems to be the worst for me. I hope this helps. I would also explore other pain killing methods other than those really addictive drugs like morphine. Maybe amytryptilline or a tens unit and pt. Have you tried that? Maybe acupuncture, etc. I guess it's worth trying.
May 13, 2015 - 2:33pmThis Comment
Thank you for this article. My partner has been experiencing similar problems for the past three years. I was wondering if you continued taking the Dong Quai long term or if you just took it f or a little while. Also, what was the dosage that you took? I think this sounds much more promising than a lot of the other things we have tried. It seems like it would make a lot of sense for this to be related to hormones because my partner finds that it is worse during the parts of her cycle where the estrogen would be lowest. She also was put n birth control for a long period of time when she was a teenager in orer to clear up her skin.
January 12, 2015 - 5:08pmThis Comment
Hi there, I have had itching an irritation on my vulva and top of hood also around the anus. It is also red and inflamed in the same area of tge vulva on each side. This started about 6 monthes ago and sometimes fades then comes back more intense, and when I think about it I feel like it intensifies. I also get sharp pain shooting through my groin on occassion. Before this started I had antibs for a uti. I then thought it was thrush so treated it but no better, doctor tested for infections but came back clear. Ive used otger types of thrush treatments but nothing works. I have irregular periods but always have been like this and have been inconsistently on and off ginet pill. I tried having sex and I bleed a lot, and I have had some traumatic sex experiences before this developed. Does this sound like vulvardynia it seems to be the only thing that fits symptoms. I am 20 and in otherwise good health but this problem is frustrating an upsetting. I have good diet and im active with sport and gym. Help!?!?!
December 16, 2014 - 6:35pmThis Comment
I am 15 years old, almost 16, and recently contracted the worst physical illness that I've ever had to endure. I believe my cause to vulvodynia is when I was 14 years old and had 3-4 UTIs in one year. It was terrible, I didn't think anything was worse, until recently. After reading about Vulvodynia, I feel like I know an substantial amount of information. My whole life has changed. I even felt hopeless and suicidal at one point when I found out I had this because some women have had it for almost all their lives, and I want to be very successful one day, and I can't imagine a woman with vulvodynia being able to accomplish that. Not only that, but I'm so young, what did I do to deserve this? I can't join the club I wanted to join this year that requires anyone who wants to join to stay after school for 3-4 hours outside, because I know if I do I'll most likely contract a yeast infection within the first day, not to mention how incredibly UNCOMFORTABLE my "down area" will feel within the first 10 minutes. So I'm really bummed. My mood changes instantly when I get the discomfort. It's like someone who is in the best mood ever, but if they find out their dog of 15 years died, obviously their mood will turn instantly bad. That's just like me. I can't fully enjoy things like I used to, it is affecting my school work and more than anything I want to get good grades, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to be motivated when my mood is bad and all I can think about is how terrible the pain and irritation feels. However, I'm SO GLAD I found this article. Now I know what to do, and even though my mom is taking me to a gynecologist, I feel like I already know the answer to my problem. Eat healthy, exercise, do physical therapy (I need to my pelvis is bad and that can be a contribution to my vulvodynia) and be the least stressed out I can be. I believe everything happens for a reason, and even though this suffering seems completely meaningless because it's only suffering, I feel like it will benefit me if I ever one day am cured because I will do everything I can to help those who are affected by this as well. No one should have to go through this. It affects EVERY ASPECT of life and should be more noticed in the medical world!Thank you and I hope everyone who is affected by this has HOPE and will not let them feel hopeless, and to never stop trying finding treatments and whatnot. XXXX
September 11, 2014 - 1:12pmThis Comment