Okay whyyyyyy!!!!!
I’m so tired of this. My period ended the 18th. Today I have thick thick white paste discharge. PH of 3 and redness. My last evvy showed 40% iners 55% crisp and 5% random little BV bacteria. Do you guys think this is high enough iners to still be causing issues? Help me :(
I got prescribed Metronidazol(antibiotics) for BV then a day later my results came back positive for a yeast infection and got prescribed Diflucan. On the packaging it says to take one now and the second 2 days from then, when I picked it up from the pharmacist, she said I could take them both together. I messaged my doctor asking if this was OK, but she only responded a day or two later so I had already taken the Diflucan per the pharmacists instructions, so I don’t know if I should continue with the Diflucan simultaneously with the metronidazole or to just take the second Diflucan when I finish my antibiotics that I am on day 2 on now.
hello… i really need help 🙏 i had unprotected sex with someone who was REALLY big. He pulled out, but i was very sore in my muscles afterwards.
My dumbass did it again two days later, and he finished inside.
It burned IMMEDIATELY, which i assumed was irritation from not letting any micro tears heal from the encounter 2 days prior… I thought it would heal. But now it has been like 10 days and my inner labia has been visibly red and inflamed. around my vagina is red and inflamed. It burns when the skin makes contact when I walk, and when it makes contact with urine.
I am negative for chlamydia, trich and gonorrhoea, and BV/Yeast, tho they did give me 2g metronidazole and 150mg fluconazole empirically. I am going to get tested for ureasplasma and mycoplasma gen tomorrow, however it’s very localized external inflammation.
I do have pelvic floor dysfunction, my muscles are always tense and I am chronically stressed. I am used to chronic pelvic floor symptoms, but nothing has ever been like this. Noticeably red and inflamed with this intense burn and itch. I am not sure what to think right now, but I am starting two new jobs and I can’t deal with this burn.
What can I do? Does anyone know what this is? I’m seeing my doctor on Monday, are there any treatments that I can ask him about? I would appreciate any insight.
I have had this yeast infection since January. I’ve done everything under the sun.
After treatment, test results come up negative. But a week later it returns.
I am at the point where I don’t know what to do and for the last few weeks I have constant burning. I have to pee using a peri bottle. I’m really suffering and I’ve been to so many doctors. Everything is a guessing game.
-I use scent free laundry detergent
- I only wash with water in the shower
- I was on a strict no carb no sugar diet
- I am taking probiotics
- I haven’t had intercojrse since this all started
Someone, anyone, PLEASE HELP ME, I can’t do this anymore
I have Candida albicans diflucan resistant
Here’s All the treatments I’ve done, in order
- 1 pill diflucan
- 7 day Terconazole
- 3 day Terconazole
- 14 days boric acid
- 16 days boric acid
- 14 days nystain suppositories & oral nystain
Im so desperate for this to end. I just want my life back. Please help me
Hi, i am a 22 year old female. I am writing to see if anyone can possibly help me out. I am a bigger girl, however i have lost 80 or so pounds in the past 10 months. I have had what i consider a smelly vagina for a pretty long time. No matter how much i shower, use soap, nothing helps. I get waxes regularly, and i am also on the IUD so i don’t get my period. I do take cranberry pills as a supplement. My biggest fear is wanting to hook up with a guy (example: randomly) and i cant because im too embarrassed i smell. Its not a fishy smell, it just doesn’t smell good. I am also clean of any STD's or anything like that, and regularly do laundry and clean myself. The only thing that i can think correlates with this is i have has vaginal itching for about 7 years now, and i have to get a biopsy done as we don’t know what is causing the itching, and cant do anything to make it better. Does anyone have any advise on what i should do? am i the only one that is like this? Please let me know. Thank you in advance, a girl who really needs help
Full Text (since paywalled):
Farrah was fed up with her vagina.
For the past two years, the 29-year-old dancer from Ohio had been dealing with severe pelvic pain and vaginal odor. “It was like 8/10, horrible core pain,” she says. “I couldn’t lie down. I couldn’t even work an office job. It was bad.”
When she visited doctors, she told them what she thought the culprit was: an allergic reaction to soy oil in a vat of water she’d swam in during a pirate-themed dinner theater performance. But they didn’t believe her. “They attempted to fix it with antibiotics,” she says. “And they just did nothing.”
So Farrah (who requested we withhold her full name to speak freely about health matters) started Googling her symptoms. That’s how she stumbled on NeuEve, a vaginal health company that provides supplements, suppositories, and at-home vaginal microbiome testing kits.
She ordered a test from the company for $150, and it came back with a diagnosis: aerobic vaginitis (AV), a bacterial infection caused by an overgrowth of E. coli or streptococcus. She ordered supplements the company recommended, and she says the pain abated almost immediately. “I was just so glad to actually know what was wrong,” she says.
Farrah is one of a growing number of women who have used at-home tests to self-diagnose issues with the vaginal microbiome—an ecosystem of bacteria growing inside the vagina; the presence of “good” bacteria correlates with lower risk of STIs and other types of infections, according to numerous studies. The industry got a shoutout when the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Bryan Johnson recently posted on X that he had just given oral sex to his girlfriend, Kate Tolo, then followed up with a screengrab of her Tiny Health vaginal microbiome report. He proclaimed that she scored “100/100” and that hers was in the “top 1% of all vaginas” due to the dominance of Lactobacillus crispatus, a type of “good” bacteria found in the vagina.
Johnson’s thread garnered widespread mockery, with many questioning why Johnson would publicly quantify his partner’s vaginal health in such a fashion. But it also received replies from women online who are tracking their own vaginal microbiomes to treat their bacterial infections, to boost fertility, or just out of interest. Some even posted their results.
The market for at-home vaginal microbiome tests is growing—Tiny Health, the startup Tolo used, claims vaginal health testing sales spiked 2,000 percent within the first 48 hours of Johnson’s post—and similar companies include Juno Bio, which partners with Neueve; the UK-based Daye, and Evvy. But some experts believe there’s not yet enough research to support the long-term validity of such tests. None of the at-home kits on the market are approved by the FDA. There are also questions as to whether they empower women to take their health care into their own hands or simply create more anxiety for them.
Twenty-eight-year-old Samantha (she also requested a pseudonym given the sensitive nature of this topic) developed an interest in vaginal microbiome testing after experiencing a bout of bacterial vaginosis, or BV. She ordered a testing kit from Evvy upon the recommendation of the Facebook group Beyond BV, which offers support for women with recurring vaginal infections, and where they often post their own results.
Samantha found her test results useful, but she also noticed a distinct strain of paranoia within the group. For instance, when many women receive their results, they tend to focus on whether they have enough Lactobacillus crispatus, or “good” bacteria, in the vagina. “I'll read posts where women are freaking out if they have like 97 percent crispatus and then they'll retest and they'll have like 60 percent and be really disappointed and scared,” she says. The opposite also holds true. “Women will post about having 100 percent crispatus and other women in the comments will just be like, ‘Oh, I'm so jealous, I'm having so many issues, I hope to be you one day.’”
In internet communities like the subreddit r/Healthyhooha , which has more than 100,000 members, women regularly discuss their ratios of “protective” to “destructive” vaginal bacteria, often trying to optimize the former. Some take vaginal microbiome tests multiple times, as a preemptive measure to avoid future infections. Research indicates that 50 to 80 percent of women who get BV once will get it again.
Longevity researcher Kayla Barnes-Lentz tests her vaginal microbiome about twice a year and publicly posts her results. (She also uses Evvy and acts as a paid adviser for the brand.) She started testing it not because she has any underlying health issues, but because she wants to do everything in her power to try to boost her numbers—for instance, she says she got her 97 percent protective bacteria score up to a 100 percent by taking vaginal probiotics.
“We know that decline occurs as we age, and I want to be as protected against that as possible,” she says. “I’m always striving, and I’m always in competition with myself.”
Evvy founder and CEO Priyanka Jain says the company has served more than 100,000 patients since its launch in 2020. She says that while the vast majority of her customers struggle with preexisting vaginal health issues, 10 percent take the test out of “curiosity,” and more than 50 percent are regular subscribers, taking the test every three months, either to track their fertility or prevent recurrence.
There’s a paucity of research surrounding the vaginal microbiome in comparison to the much better-known gut microbiome. This is in part due to gender bias within the scientific research community, says Hana Janebdar, the founder and CEO of the vaginal microbiome testing startup Juno Bio. Historically, “there has been this huge amount of research and commercialization into every aspect of microbiomes except how it pertained to women's health,” she says.
But even though recurring BV infections among women are a legitimate issue, some researchers say the utility of taking an at-home vaginal microbiome test is debatable—especially when one is asymptomatic, as Barnes-Lentz and Tolo were.
The vaginal microbiome is ever-fluctuating and can vary depending on factors like diet, sexual activity, and whether someone is pregnant or menstruating, says Jacques Ravel, a vaginal microbiome researcher at the University of Maryland. (Ravel is also listed as a scientific adviser to probiotics company Seed.) “It’s a very dynamic system,” he says. “Knowing what happened at one point in your life won’t really tell you much about what’s going to happen even two weeks from now.”
Vaginal microbiome diversity also varies by race and ethnicity: Black women, for instance, are statistically more likely to have less Lactobacillus crispatus, the protective bacteria, than white women of European descent, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem with their vaginal health. And some women can have little to no lactobacillus and be perfectly healthy.
The tests also typically suggest treatment protocols like antibiotics or probiotics, some of which can disrupt the bacteria ecosystem in the vagina if introduced unnecessarily. “You're going to maybe end up with something that might not be optimal for you, and all of a sudden you're going to start having problems,” such as worsening irritation or discomfort, Ravel says. “I think that’s dangerous.”
When asked about such critiques, the CEOs I spoke with take issue with the idea that the tests provide zero insight into long-term vaginal health, arguing that results fluctuate far less than Ravel suggests. While Kimberley Sukhum, the chief science officer at Tiny Health, agrees that unnecessary treatment such as antibiotic intervention “can be harmful,” she says biomarkers such as lactobacillus dominance are “not fleeting signals. They reflect the underlying character of a woman’s vaginal community at a given point in time and are associated with real health outcomes.”
Regardless of the long-term utility of the tests—or, at the very least, the ludicrous idea of a woman having a “top 1%” vagina—their popularity undoubtedly points to a larger issue within the women’s health space. Until 1993, researchers were not legally required to include women in clinical trials, contributing to a massive gender gap in data. The women who regularly test their vaginal microbiomes are trying to find their own answers within a medical system that has largely failed them.
“We have not done extensive research or funded enough for extensive research to come up with new medicine to solve this problem,” says Ravel. “For almost 50 years, we have not come up with a solution to help women. And I think that’s very, very sad.”
My symptoms are constant thick white/yellow-tinged discharge and high vaginal PH.
Has anyone had similar results? How did you treat it? My gyne appt is ONE YEAR AWAY. My fam doctor is not helpful. Plz help :( been suffering for years.
RESULTS:
0% lactobacillus
8.42% aerobic bacteria
91.58 anaerobic bacteria
Microbiome Type: 4. Dominated by Gardnerella Vaginalis.
Hoylesella timonensis 20%
Prevotella disiens 12.13%
Dialister propionicifaciens 10.28%
Bifidobacterium bifidum 8.45%
Streptococcus 8.42% (disruptive)
Campylobacter ureolyticus 6.61% (disruptive)
Peptostreptococcus anaerobius 5.85%
Finegoldia magna 2.91 (disruptive)
Prevotella bivia 2.76% (disruptive)
The rest are smaller percentages 1.50% and under.
In august 2025, a month after unprotected sex with the same partner I felt intense, vaginal burning and yellow to green discharge. Before that, I never had any problems whatsoever. Did a PCR test which showed 25-35 % Gardnerella/Prevotella and 45% Lactobacillus - classified as mild to moderate disbiosis. Everything else including Ureaplasmas and Mycoplasmas was negative. Culture swab was also negative, showing only Lactobacillus.
I am very averse to antibiotics, so I decided to crowd the anaerobes out using vaginal lactobacillus and oral probiotics for three straight months. I would've kept going because I thought more months were needed for stabilizing the microbiome, however my vaginal mucosa started to get irritated from daily use and I stopped. So since november, I haven't used anything. The burning stopped immediately after starting the probiotics. I never had odor. However, lingering yellow discharge persists (in normal amounts), visible mostly during ovulation (the color is definitely less intense since when this whole process started), however it is not my usual color, which was always transparent to whitish. I haven't done a repeat PCR since it is quite expensive in my country. Haven't been sexually active either.
I guess my question is can this be my normal discharge color now, or am I deluding myself thinking everything is ok? The most prudent thing would be another PCR? I am very anxious about the results, I don't want to go through that again and I don't want any antibiotics :( Also is it safe to resume sexual activity in this situation, but with a condom? I also feel so dirty somehow, like I don't want to transfer anything to another man, infecting him, even though this has been done to me in a way.
Any advice, or experiences are much appreciated. I need kind words right now, I feel like i have been suppressing this whole thing for a long time.
I think I seriously irritated my vulva by consistently using scented products/body wash to clean down there because I wasn’t really educated on that stuff.At first I thought it was thrush because I had itching/burning, so I used thrush cream and the pill treatment. It calmed down a bit, but then I used a “zero” body wash thinking it would be gentler and everything got way worse.
Now I have painful sores AND ulcers on my vulva, stinging, raw skin, and it hurts badly to wipe or pee. It genuinely feels like someone fucking sliced my skin down there and it gets uncomfortable to walk. The inside hurts too. I’ve stopped using all products and I’m only washing with water now.
I then called 111 who were absolutely useless and they told me to book a GP appointment which I’m doing tomorrow, but I’m honestly panicking and wanted to know if anyone else has experienced severe irritation like this from products or if it turned out to be something else.
Please no judgment because I already know I messed up using scented products there :(
ive had a yeast infection since march that keeps coming back. the first time it happened i got tested for all stds, bv, and trich and it came back as yeast. took fluconazole and after a week it was still the same. went back to urgent care two more times and it kept coming back as positive for yeast.
the discharge got clumpier and had a greenish hue which really concerned me but not my providers
i finally went to my gyn and she did another swab which once again came back positive for yeast and negative for bv/trich. i was prescribed 7 day terconazole which seemed to help for about a week after finishing but now it is back again.
my gyn prescribed me another round of fluconazole which i am currently taking and i have an appointment to see her in a few days
i really just dont know what to do anymore. ive tried completely cutting out sugar. ive also been on hormonal birth control for a year but ive never had a yeast infection in my life before march.
any advice is greatly appreciated
I’ve been having sex with a few different partners as of late, which is awesome, but of course, puts the microbiome at risk. I would love to know what your maintenance tips post-sex and prevention techniques are to keep the ph balanced.
Here’s what I do currently:
• Prevention-wise, I take Nuora gummies, URO vaginal probiotics, and try to maintain a balanced diet.
• Post-sex I try to pee right after and shower/rinse the vulva with water.
Is there anything else I can/should be doing? What are some things my partners could do for me? I may start requiring that they use mouthwash or rinse their mouth before going down. 🤔
Thanks in advance! 🌸
Hello everyone. I am 20 currently and in the past year my life has turned into a nightmare due to my constant reoccuring infections that are always indicated by yellow discharge or even greenish one. However in the past year i have went through a whole color palette;i had yellow,green,orange,pink,red and even brown discharges. My previous doctor always prescribed me antibiotics that never helped after some time. I often had itching,even pain with my discharges,but there were some times when i only had the discharge as a symptom. However,the biggest problem was that i also started to experience slight pink/red bleeding while taking my hormonal pills,always on the middle or last week of it. It went on for a few days,stopped around the last 4 pills. So i ended up changing doctors 3 months ago.
Due to the abnormal bleedings i had 2 PAP tests in the last 2 years but nothing was ever shown,i also had a transvaginal ultrasound,that revealed that my endometrium is thin,but seemed to improve,however they couldnt check my cervix properly since it was too painful for me. I never had any sexual partners in my life yet
I had also been prescribed mistral,a hormonal contraceptive 5 years ago since i have diagnosed adenomiosis.
I changed doctors 2 months ago,and in the start i was hopeful,my itching went away after a week and it seemed fine,however i am on the 23rd day of not taking a contraceptive,and i have yellow/orange discharge again,also mixed with some watery every few hours. The weird thing is it not only comes from the normal usual place,but also from around the clitoris. It is yellow mostly,and i dont have any itching yet,and also no odor,or maybe some i dont even know. I am totally lost and i am on the edge of giving up with trying another doctor,it seems like nothing ever helps. Im at loss. Has anyone ever had something similar? Any recommendations on what to do? Its making my life worse day by day
Frankly this has been going on for so long. Nothings been able to help. Any advice would be so appreciative. I genuinely just feel so scared that I’ll never be normal again. It’s just such an intense amount everyday. Consistency and color changes sometimes it’s white other times it’s yellow. Sometimes sticky sometimes chunky. I don’t feel like the doctors r helping me & im scared they can’t. (22F)
I went on back to back antibiotics for unrelated things and then in late Feb the discharge began
First, I tested positive for yeast and was treated with oral pills.
Then, I was prescribed antifungal cream because I was so red, but tests came back negative for yeast, BV, and all STIs — yet I still had discharge.
I was then:
Treated for yeast again with an oral pill (without testing)
Treated with nystatin for yeast (without testing)
Still had discharge that did not respond at all and actually got much worse
Finally, I went to the OB-GYN and my swab showed BV but not yeast. I took metronidazole pills for 7 days, but it did not lessen the discharge at all.
Then:
I went back to the gynecologist and all testing, including mycoplasma/ureaplasma, came back negative.
I did boric acid for 8 days and right after had a few normal light discharge days but it eventually came back.
I did boric acid for 8 days and right after had a few normal light discharge days but it eventually came back.
Did boric acid for 8 nights. Had a few normal discharge days! Then it came back …
Despite the negative BV result, my doctor still prescribed metronidazole gel because of how severe the discharge was.
I had 2 days left of the gel and discharge is worse it’s been in weeks. :((
Does anybody know what other testing I should ask for?? I really don’t want to be told this is my normal discharge because frankly it looks sickly and I’m scared. Ive been taking Happy V probiotics for the last 2 months. Btw i haven’t been sexually active. Not much itching and burning but having to wear panty liners everyday just due to the shear amount. It also has a bit of an odor. I have some low risk hpv strains too but i keep being told thats not causing it.
What do you think? I did two tests.
Hey guys, I just wanted to get on here to post a little about my experience with DIV just incase it can help anyone else. It’s super rare, classified as a chronic condition and honestly had I never gotten a wet mount done I wouldn’t of been as fortunate as I was to catch in just a few months rather than years.
There’s really no known cause, I believe mine was a series of unfortunate events such as back to back BV, followed by a severe yeast infection, followed by a chemical burn from washing dye out of my hair and getting the runoff on my vaginal tissues. (Legit all back to back)
My skin felt so sunburnt, I couldn’t even sit, let alone lay comfortably. I knew the burn would take a while to heal but weeks were going by with no improvement, since my skin barrier was down I ended up with BV again. My gyno was convinced the BV was causing the discomfort so I got treated with metro gel, but it was sticky and I was getting these weird white clumps (not yeast it was like my skin cells mixed with metro) I knew in my head something was NOT right. She had me do just estrogen for 2 weeks and it still wasn’t helping, literally nothing was.
At this point I had been diagnosed with neurogenic pain, hypertonic pelvic floor, internal cystitis (because one of my symptoms were constant bladder pressure, it was hurting to pee, I had gotten checked for a uti 300 times but it was negative) chronic vaginitis, vulvadynia, and trigger points. Every single gyno and even my first urogynocologist tried convincing me that all of those things were causing my pain.
I started noticing a random flux of discharge coming out at random times and in random amounts and it was off-color. Not bright yellow, not bright green, just off. During this time I was scheduled for trigger point injections but I kept telling my dr I thought I had an infection, she said she’d check before but she didn’t we just got right into the injections and let me tell you, they hurt so fucking bad I only got one done. You know why they hurt so bad? Because I had DIV with transitional BV, had I gone through with the injections I would have never gotten in with my new urogynocologist and would have never gotten a wet mount. 3 months of no answer and I finally had one.
If wearing underwear hurts, you have unexplained redness and burning, or abnormal discharge, or you start feeling raw it’d probably be a good idea to get a wet mount to rule out DIV.
I’m currently on a hydrocortisone treatment compounded with estrogen. Day 11 and I’m noticing some improvements especially with my bladder pressure and the rawness level
There doesn’t seem to be l.crispatus vaginal. Anyone inserted the oral l.crispatus in the capsule for vaginale application and used it?
Hello everyone! Genuinely spiraling from all the different factors and possibilities so forgive me.
Some background info (in case of any similarities):
I have basically struggled with hydrogen dominant SIBO, plus recurrent UTIs from a hot tub, since 2023. Because of these, the overuse of all kinds of antibiotics for 1-2 years seems to be the cause, or definitely a factor, in my candida issue now. I also put together that I’ve had PCOS for ~10 years that had never been addressed and it all seemed to catch up to me at once. I am not diabetic, and have never tested positive for ureaplasma/mycoplasma or any STD/STI but I am insulin resistant and have estrogen dominance. My boyfriend has taken fluconazole and used miconazole OTC cream while I’ve been on previous treatments for YIs, but it doesn’t seem like he is the cause at this point. I am suspicious of mold in my home but have been too fearful to find that we might need to move so I haven’t tested for it.
Anyway, I noticed that it tends to be around my period that I get a yeast infection. But not every time. However an example was in November when I had my period, a UTI, BV and a yeast infection all at once💀 (took metronidazole, fluconazole, nystatin cream, etc.) Then in December, another yeast infection (fluconazole). Then in February another, treated w/ terconazole and fluconazole. More fluconazole in March. Then in April I used compounded nystatin suppositories my doctor prescribed me every night for 30 days straight. It didn’t work. She left the practice too so now I’m searching for a new doc. LOL😀
I saw a new gynecologist this past week who came up with the following treatment plan for me: 2 fluconazole pills (3 days apart), terconazole for 7 nights and boric acid at the same time, 7days (Boric Balance Vaginal Suppositories, which she claims is better than the Love Killer Boric acid that I was using 2x a week to keep yeast at bay for a while, but eventually I think it caused BV for me). The treatment plan scares me for the BV reason (avoiding antibiotics like the plague) and it just seems really aggressive, like it would be hard to distinguish between infection and irritation if it backfires. So I haven’t done it and am currently waiting to see 3 other gynos to get more opinions.
Should I just go to infectious disease at this point? I’ve been working with a nutritionist for months who has me on lauricidin, S Boulardii, vaginal balance probiotics, the works!! I know I can beat this, I just don’t know what to do next. Needing advice and support 😭🫶🏼 thanks a mil for reading.
Maybe just give me the exact name, I have to look if I can order them to Germany as here nothing exists with l.crispatus.
Hi friends,
I'm seeing a lot of us struggle with doctors who dont know how to deal with women's microbiome and infection. Let's shout out the ones that DO. In this sub, I've seen women suffering for YEARS with some stupid basic infection that just won't go away. Some of yall found a good doc that had a hard case and figured it out. We need their info.
Let's try to keep it organized post State - city - Doc name. If one from your state exists, reply in that thread so we can keep em together.
I need a doc in MI, preferably metro Detroit, gimme whatcha got.
i did 10 consecutive days of metrogel, then twice a week for 6 weeks and i was recommended to do two additional weeks of boric acid.
i'm (finally) done with the metro gel portion of treatment. i'm coming off my period and i am RAW, like some sort of dermatitis.
is this a side effect of metronidazole? perhaps a sign that the BV wasn't properly eradicated? im so done with this 😭
i still haven't started doing boric acid so i'm technically not done with treatment but im sooo worried i've spent so long treating this issue.