u/small_trouble11

I want to start off by saying how disgusted I was by this and wasn’t sure if I should post. But I want to put this out there in case it happens to anyone else.
Two months ago I went an a trip to Europe and noticed brown discharge with a metallic smell literally the day before I left. I messaged my PCP and they basically said to monitor it and it could be BV. Once I was back to schedule an appointment and if symptoms developed to go to urgent care. I get back and learn my gynecologist is leaving the department so I see a nurse practitioner. She does a BV swab- says she’s using the smallest speculum they have. This is about a month ago. The brown smell and discharge continue. At this point I’m at my wits end. These are my only symptoms. Period comes and goes as normal. I should mention the nurse practitioner was over an hour late to my appointment and was clearly rushing to catch up. Said it was just ovulation related spotting and that “these things start to happen at my age”….I’m 34. Fast forward to 6 days ago and I finally see a new gynecologist and she performs a Pap smear and is like “oh you have a retained tampon in here”
I’m horrified. This never even crossed my mind as a possibility. I have used tampons since this all started and had sex so I guess it kept getting pushed up. I thought at first maybe this was from my last period which ended a few days before this recent appointment. But it’s almost a week later and everything is back to normal down there.

I’m going back to have another exam to make sure things are healing (she said there was inflammation and my pap was bloody) and see if there’s anything I can do to help myself heal. Honestly the body is amazing and like I said the symptoms immediately subsided. All of my tests came back fine (pap smear, hpv, stis) and I even did an Evvy test and am waiting on those results.

All of this is to say if anything seems off and you use tampons just check. I never thought this would be a possibility and NEVER for that amount of time. I realize I’m so lucky that it didn’t develop into TSS. I hope this post helps anyone in the future who this might happen to. It DOES happen and more often than you’d think. 🖤

(Also if anyone has advice- I’m considering following up with the NP who saw me to tell her about how she missed this. I feel like she should be informed in some way. Or maybe reported since she wrote me off so quickly and didn’t consider a pelvic exam)

Please read. This is pretty detailed since I can’t find anything online quite like it.
34f have always been very regular. Period every 28 days. Spotting the day before. Moderate bleed for two maybe three days. Not super painful and then it’s done. Literally has always been like that even through stressful times in my life.
So rewind 3 months and I get my period five days early. Not bad because I’m off to Europe for ten days and this way it’ll be over before I go. So we arrive in Europe and my period is still lingering. The day before we left I notice a smell that’s never been there before. Metallic sure but way more than usual and there’s something else. Not fishy but can’t quite put my finger on it. I message my gyno and they say if it starts to irritate me to go to urgent care there. There’s no other symptom besides the smell and the brown discharge. It smells to the point where I had to buy panty liners to wear the entire trip. No intercourse was has with my husband. Which sucked but we wanted to make sure everything was alright.
Get home and get swabbed for BV and stds just in case. All negative. Get a pelvic ultrasound that came up normal/inconclusive. I will say at this point almost three months later the smell isn’t as bad. Neither is the discharge but it’s still there. And if we do have sex there’s brown discharge and you can smell it. Which has killed my drive almost completely.
I’m in the process of establishing a new gynecologist since mine is leaving the practice. In the meantime I saw an NP who really wasn’t good at her job. Or at least not with me and following up. Said it could be mid cycle ovulation spotting. Said it could be because things just “start around this age”?? I’m 34! Also I pretty much had to beg to get an ultrasound which SHE recommended if the tests can back normal.
I will say I do have a small moveable bump (size of pinky nail) on the left side of my groin that’s been there for a couple years. One of the ultrasounds I had along with the pelvic was for this which came up inconclusive. I’m going back for an MRI for this in October. However both my PCP and Gynecologist were not concerned since it’s small, moveable, non painful and not growing.
I just don’t understand what this ongoing discharge could be. If it was mid cycle ovulation spotting I would think it would only be around ovulation.
Does anyone have similar experiences? Advice? I’m happy to answer any questions to get feedback!
It just feels like they’re not taking it seriously and I’m getting extremely fed up. I live in a major city that’s supposedly known for having great healthcare 😞