Itchy, stingy, red, swollen, dry patches, pain during intercourse
Since last year, I've been struggling with my vaginal health, and I'm hoping someone here might recognise what I'm going through.
It started with an itchy, stinging feeling on the inside of my labia majora, close to the vaginal entrance. At first, I thought it was from shaving and hair growing back, but at some point, I noticed the symptoms weren't lining up with my shaving schedule at all. I stopped shaving completely, switched to only cotton underwear, stopped wearing panty liners, slept without underwear, and avoided sex for a while, but nothing helped.
Around the same time, I started experiencing pain during penetration. I never had any issues before. We tried different lubes, different condoms, every combination possible, thinking something might have triggered it. It's always a burning, stretching sensation, especially at the beginning and afterwards. At this point, I've lost a lot of my libido because it's just not comfortable anymore.
When I started inspecting the area more closely, I noticed two small patches on each side, roughly where the pubic hair stops on the inner edge of the labia majora. They look inflamed, slightly red, and sometimes swollen, especially after a lot of movement or walking. Mornings and rest days are always better. I also noticed white spots forming in those areas, only on the inflamed area. They don't really look like lichen sclerosus to me, they're not fluid-filled either, more like very tiny flat dot-like patches. In the beginning, they wiped away easily, but now they seem to stay on the skin. They don't spread tho, it's always the same spot. I also recently noticed dry, flaky skin around my vulva that wasn't there before.
I went to my GP twice. Both times I felt dismissed. The first time, she prescribed a vaseline cream without a clear diagnosis, and she ruled out herpes and STIs visually (no swab was done), and the cream didn't really help. The second time, she prescribed a steroid cream, which I decided not to use because it's a strong product, and she still had no actual diagnosis. I didn't want to risk thinning/irritating the skin even more in that area without knowing what I'm treating.
After doing my own research, I started wondering about vaginal dryness. I'm 23, so menopause obviously isn't the cause, but I had my tubes cut last year, and I've read that some women report similar issues after that procedure. Most of my symptoms started roughly a month or two after the surgery, which could be a coincidence, but it made me wonder. I do have normal discharge, no pain while peeing, and no UTIs, it's purely the constant external sensitivity and discomfort.
I now have an appointment with a gynecologist in two months, and I'm mentally and physically exhausted from dealing with this. Has anyone experienced something similar, or found anything that helped in the meantime?