Recurring BV for a year… and I think I accidentally figured out why
I’m 26F and I’ve been with the same guy for 2 years. For the first year, everything about our sex life was completely normal.
Then around March 2025, we used a warming lube for the first time. After that, I started getting recurring BV constantly.
I’d treat it with 7 days of Metronidazole and it would completely clear up. But every time we had unprotected sex again (especially when he finished inside me), the BV would come right back. This became a MONTHLY cycle.
I saw multiple GPs, booked a gyno appointment, and kept getting prescribed Metronidazole tablets and sometimes clindamycin vaginal cream over and over again. I was exhausted and honestly miserable.
I also tried:
> Pinc brand Boric acid suppositories
> Pinc brand Probiotic suppositories
> Greek yogurt/probiotics daily
> Even vinegar douching at one point (don’t recommend lol)
Nothing actually stopped it from returning.
Then one day I was staring at my partner and noticed I still had some clindamycin cream left in my drawer. I randomly thought:
“What if the bacteria is staying on him and just getting passed back to me?”
So I put a small amount of clindamycin cream on his penis externally (in and around the foreskin too) and he went home.
A week later, we had sex multiple times.
and days later, NO BV.
I genuinely can’t believe it. After an entire year of recurring infections, this is the first time I haven’t felt symptoms afterwards.
I know this isn’t medical advice and I’m not telling people to self-treat their partners, but I honestly feel like his penis was holding the bacteria and reinfecting me repeatedly.
I decided to post this because during the last year I searched Reddit and Google constantly looking for answers from women going through the same thing. Recurring BV is mentally exhausting and makes you feel hopeless.