u/Icy-Welcome-8561

Does anybody have experience with menstrual cups? My Vulvodynia was triggered by chronic yeast infections and currently I am almost symptom free, but I am terrified of risking any infection. I’ve ditched tampons completely and only use cotton pads. However they usually last me two hours at best, and I hate the feeling of blood just running out of me uncontrollably. Does anybody know if silicone menstrual cups could pose a risk of irritation or infection? I think the insertion itself wouldn’t be a too much of a problem for me.. thanks in advance!

After half a fucking year they detect a yeast infection. They just never caught it. Treatment almost made me worse for the first week, then all of a sudden pretty much all of it went away. I know it’s probably going to come back. This is my eleventh yeast infection, they are chronic, they are annoying, they never present with the same/usual symptoms so they are difficult to diagnose, I’ll be back to the next one in a couple of weeks I suppose, they might leave permanent damage. But until that happens, I’m going to savour every single pain- and itch-free minute I can get. I actually feel victorious. This is the first time I’ve felt like myself in months. This is all so insane to me. I feel normal. I love falling asleep, I love waking up, I love going to uni, I love going to the supermarket without the itching, stinging and burning. Everything is a hundred times better.
I went to get waxed today because I don’t dare to shave, but partly also because it is so much better to experience regulated pain that is under your control rather than pain that comes from within you. I feel powerful today.
Don’t ever lose hope. I know that for the most of you there’s more to the diagnosis than just a stupid undetected yeast infection, but keep believing that there will be a day that you’ll feel comfortable in your body again. This shit has motivated me to become a gynaecologist. Mine literally told me that what I felt was “just a part of me now” and to just “get used to it”. I won’t send women in pain away. Vulvodynia is real.
I am literally crying tears of joy and relief right now.