Thread: possible vulvodynia: relief suggestions only

This may not completely solve your problem but at least help make the "environment" better - Lactobacillus Acidophillus. You could find it as a supplement in whole foods/ health food stores, or even in yoghurt and cider vinegar. Check on it, as it might ease at least.

Me again! Caterpillar is right, more acidophilus and using a very weak vinegar solution could help if your ph is off. If you find it isn't helping the best plan is to get your pelvic floor resting tone checked out with a biofeedback machine, there isn't any other reliable method of checking it so make sure wherever you go has the machine. If it's too high you'll need to learn to relax it and might need some work on the muscles around your pelvis too. It's also a good idea to get your pelvic alignment checked out and your back tested for tightness/weakness etc too. If it is a pelvic floor issue it takes time to reduce it, in fact all treatments for vulvodynia take time so there isn't a quick fix. It's taken me 3 months to get my resting tone down even to normal high levels (as I said before) and I've been told to expect it to take at least another 6 months to get it down to a more normal level that should help with symptoms. If you do have vulvodynia getting pain relief quickly is important as it breaks the pain loop and then looking at ways to get rid of the problem is the next step.

thanks for posting again sarah. i am having a hard time understanding this whole mess. i was PERFECTLY fine before this mess started. i thought it was just contact vulvitis, and i think all the stuff i put down there just messed it up big time, and in fact led to a real yeast infection, which i have never had before. i also think that i am tensing my muscles up too because i am such a nervous wreck about this whole thing, and i haven't even been diagnosed yet! i am sorry to ramble on so much but as you probably know from experience it has been kinda traumatic for me. i may be over-reacting alittle but there isn't many promising things on the internet about it, and no one around here seems to know what the i am talking about. very frustrating! i am going to call my doc. again and schedule yet ANOTHER appointment with him. just one question for you sarah, how did you get diagnosed with it? did it happen suddenly, or slowly over time? mine seems to have come out of no where!!! i have had no symptoms until just over the past month.

I can totally relate to how you feel, I was totally convinced mine would be an infection or a skin reaction as it just happened overnight. I went to bed feeling fine and woke up with terrible burning, soreness and bright red skin. Apparently that's a really common way for it to start. The theory is something upsets the skin like a yeast infection, irritating clothing etc and for some reason it doesn't heal. Pelvic floor therapists say the tightness in the pelvic floor decreases circulation to the area so inflammation can't be flushed away and the brain interprets this as an injury so throws more inflammation at it and it continues. Tightening the pelvic floor muscles is a really common finding and can either be there before the vulvodynia or as a result of but either way it prevents healing and increases pain.

Another theory is nerve damage, this can be caused by local infections (again yeast infections etc) or the pelvic floor can irritate nerves and set them off so it doesn't resolve. Nerve pain is usually burning, I had burning and soreness so the meds have reduced the burning alot for me but not the soreness as yet.

I started in Feb this year, initally I was treated over and over for yeast which I didn't have (it's a bad idea to let them do this repeatedly because the yeast treatments can make it worse) i was also treated for a UTI which I tested negative for but had blood in my urine and nothing helped. I got fed up and went to a GU clinic where they tested me for everything then when it all came back negative they told me I had vulvodynia which literally just means "pain in the vulva" so doesn't help with the why aspect. I was told medication was pretty much the standard treatment but as I have problems with my pelvic joints to get my pelvic floor checked out. Once I did it became apparent my pelvic floor was totally in spasm and obviously it wasn't going to help so I've been seeing a pelvic floor specialist for the last 3 months to learn how to gradually relax it. I do advise seeing a therapist for this, don't just do kegels at home or you can make it worse. If you can feel you are tensing your pelvic floor because of the stress of it etc chances are you tense it during other stress too so it could be very tight.

One doctor who specialises in researching vulvodynia says the pelvic floor is always tight and unstable in women who have it and it's actually a pretty reliable way to diagnose the problem. The first step is to rule out any infections so a GU clinic is a good place to go, they will also know about skin conditions so should be able to rule out those too or refer you to a dermatologist to check (it may mean a biopsy if they aren't sure) then they will be able to give you the diagnosis. Once you have that you need to start trying to get on top of the pain, medication breaks the pain loop so that helps, then look at your pelvic floor and start learning to relax it. If you don't fancy a therapist initially you can start on your own using a book called "Heal Pelvic Pain by Amy Stein" which explains how to start relaxing the pelvic floor and how to do internal massage etc but I really would at least go see a therapist once to find out exactly what's going on with your pelvic floor as lots of variations exist. For example I'd completely lost my slow twitch fibres ability but my fast twitch were really strong, some people have the opposite, I also had urinary urgency but some people have stress incontinence with it, it dpends on the individual.

thank you so much sarah. this is the best post i have seen yet!!! you sound exactly like me. i too had sudden redness/swelling. the pain was REALLY bad. i have no idea what caused it initially, i think it was new dryer sheets, but i did get a yeast infection after that had to be addressed. i used diflucan which i am glad for because i didn't use anything down there! i see my doc again on monday and we will go from there. i actually feel much better about this now. i will ask him about a physical therapist and i was also thinking about buying amy stein's book anyway. i've seen it recommended on a bunch of websites.
thanks again!

sarah, i meant to ask you... i have seen a couple of websites that have natural remedies for vulvodynia. i was wondering if you tried any of those....[edit link]....
the first one deals with oxalates the second one i am not really sure but they suggest a natural solution. just wondering if these seem legit to you.