Did your doctor tell you that the birth control pill caused it?

Hey Everyone,

I started having pain after taking yaz birth control pill for 5 months, that was 6 years ago. My doctor said Yaz was one of the worst offenders, and that the 'low estrogen' pills like it cause the most vestibulodynia. Apparently the estrogen in bcp is from horse urine and highly potent, and it shuts down your body's production of testosterone (by increasing sex hormone binding globulin which traps all your testosterone).

Has anyone's doctor mentioned testosterone? So far I have seen three doctors that say the burning pain on the outside of the hymen and behind the inner labia (vestibule) is caused by low testosterone. Why? Because this area is made of the same tissue in fetuses that becomes the penile urethra in men and is testosterone dependent tissue. I definitely have low testosterone when tested.

The other three doctors say that this is not the case, and that the entire vagina including the vestibule is estrogen dependent tissue, and I should use estrogen suppositories so support this. I definitely don't have low estrogen, if anything, I have too much showing up in my blood, urine, saliva.

I am wondering if anyone else has met this contradiction before? Anyone tie your vestibulodynia or overall vulvodynia to hormones or birth control pills? Can anyone point me to resources that talk about the effect of estrogen or testosterone on the vaginal tissues?

Here's a good article I had read in the past about the pill and its hormone destroying connection (don't worry, it's not written by Dr. Oz).

http://blog.doctoroz.com/oz-experts/when-taking-the-pill-takes-away-your-sex-life

Most articles say that testosterone is important for sexual desire...not much about its impact on vulvar tissue. However, the above article does reference hormonally mediated vestibulodynia due to low estrogen and testosterone. The below article states the following:

"Replacing testosterone to within the normal female levels (2.0 to 4.0 nmol/L) compared to normal male levels (10.0-50.0 nmol/L) can result in vastly improved levels of energy and sex drive. Testosterone replacement on its own does not always work if there is inadequate blood supply to the pelvic organs and this is mostly oestrogen related. Therefore, it is as important that the vulva and vagina are “well oestrogenised” before starting testosterone replacement therapy."

http://www.thesurreyparkclinic.co.uk/sexual-problems.php

So, unfortunately I guess you have to pick what you believe to be true and go with what works for you However, I do agree with going with a bioidentical estrogen medication versus the horse urine ones!

Also, I wanted to mention that my current specialist who specialized in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy at the Mayo Clinic says that it doesn't matter what your estrogen levels are (mine were normal too). He said there is such a wide range of what is "normal", and women with vulvodynia have high estrogen demanding vaginas And he says that our vaginas are not properly using the nutrients (estrogen) it is getting, or it isn't getting an adequate amount.

Yes - after years of vulvar burning/pain and reoccurring yeast infections, I finally found a good gyno who believed that it was my Lo Estrin24 birth control that started this all for me. She said that the low estrogen in the brith control can cause your tissue to thin, exposing your nerves (which leads to the intense hypersensitive and pain). The reoccurring yeast infections could have been from this tissue problem as well (if the tissue isn't strong it can't support the good bacteria and right pH to avoid yeast infections) AND could have also lead to my overactive nerves because reoccurring yeast will obviously aggravate your skin. This was all really sad for me because I was super hesitant about going on the pill in the first place and wish I had known this was a potential side effect and could have stopped it early once I started having problems (was on the pill for about 6 months before this all started).

Your vaginal tissue needs estrogen to proliferate and therefore these low estrogen bc pills, while great for reducing cramps, really are dangerous!

Hi orangelight,

Thanks for your post. It is very encouraging to read that several doctors you have seen have stated that the tissue of the vestibule is affected by hormonal birth control.

I've battled with so many specialists about the role hormonal birth control can have in causing vestibulodynia in some women. I'm now cured of my localised provoked vestibulodynia, but feel very strongly about what I went through not being heard. Have a read of my previous posts if you like, as they outline my experience with Microgynon causing Vestibulodynia for the 1.5 years I was on it. I believe this is also a relatively 'low dose' pill as you mention your doctor commented, and his view is that of some research from the US I've read up on online. Let me see if I can find some links for you, as I remember trying to understand the links between testosterone/estrogen levels and the vestibule myself!

Every specialist I saw over a period of 2-3 years denied any connection whatsoever between hormonal birth control and vulvodynia. However, several posts on his forum, as well as my own experience, suggest quite the opposite!

Only in my most recent check-up did my specialist tell me some very initial new research in the UK has confirmed there is a link. Let's hope more research is done, it is so very much needed.

For now, I would very much recommend coming off Yaz if you are still on it. I've had vestibulodynia twice now, and the first time I had it was cured by coming off the pill.

A2015

Natasha06,

I'm so pleased that you finally found a gyno who has this knowledge.

I, too, suffered for a long time when I was on birth control with symptoms exactly as you describe, reoccuring infections too. All that your gyno says about low estrogen pills causing thinning tissues, exposing nerves, vulnerability to new infections, overactive nerves from those infections, makes complete sense to me, and is exactly as I suspected at the time (against all my doctor's opinions!). I finally took myself off the pill because I believed this was the case, and the nerves calmed completely down to normal, I couldn't believe how the tissues no longer felt so sore & fragile anymore. It is encouraging to see how the body can rebuild itself back to normal.

Like you say, I wish I had known this was a real potential side effect of the contraceptive pill. I discuss this with other women now and really feel we need to spread this to the medical profession as much as possible.

Anyone on this forum on the pill who is suffering with these symptoms, really try coming off it as your first treatment!

I have been on birth control for years prior to developing this issue in 2014. All of the doctors I have been to have been adamant that the issue isn't birth control. But these posts are making me feel otherwise. I have been taking Sprintec. Before that I was on Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo, and only switched to Sprintec because it is the cheaper Wal Mart brand. When I lived in England, I was put back on Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo because there was no Sprintec there. And then I was swapped to Microgestin FE because the doctor thought maybe my discharge and pain was caused by the triphasic birth control (Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo). Microgestin only made me irritable and break out, so once I got back here to the US (Georgia), I was placed back on Sprintec. I keep wondering if I should come off it altogether.

I will say I developed this issue at the same time I had a kidney stone and a UTI from the kidney stone, and then I got what I thought was a yeast infection, but the smear I had done that day did not show yeast at all, just white blood cells. I have been treated for infections, both bacterial and yeast, and have tried so many other things and remedies, etc., but have not come off of my birth control. I was recently diagnosed with provoked vulvodynia. I'm supposed to see a neurologist on October 6th to see if this is due to a trapped nerve.

All of this started 6 months after being placed back on Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo.