Natural Creams/Ointments for Redness and Burning Symptoms??

Hi Ladies,

Wondering what you all have tried to help reduce the redness and more importantly burning/stinging sensation on vulva area that is natural or OTC. Like some of you, I am not willing to put anymore prescribed creams down there because they only aggravate the situation (or mine at least)

Things I have tried....

Plain Yogurt - Felt really soothing
Vitamin E - Felt okay but heard it can cause more irritation and yeast
Olive Oil - Also soothing, usually reapply after urinating
Coconut Oil - Same as Olive Oil

Wondering about things like Vaseline, Boudreaux's butt paste (bought the natural version, kinda of scared to try it), zinc oxide, aquaphor, aqueous cream, neem oil?

The only thing I have found that helps me is vaseline with one drop of lavender oil in it, it seems to calm the pain down but doesn't take the redness away, my redness is caused by my pelvic floor dysfunction and calms down a bit if I manage several days with no clenching. If you use the above please do a test area first to make sure it isn't going to irritate things further.

Sarah, how did you find out it was caused by pelvic floor issues?

Basically got my resting tone checked and it's horrendously high plus if I keep the pelvic floor relaxed the redness subsides and my pain improves.

Sarah, where about do you live, US or UK? How did you find a PT that knows about this? I am sure this is my problem but as sweet as she is my gun doesn't know a PT that is informed on this.
So glad you got help. I wish I knew some exercises or something to make my PF relax. Any suggestions, books or anything that might be able to help?

Not to butt in, but I've heard "Heal Pelvic Pain" by Amy Stein (which you can get on amazon) is a great book that has a ton of different exercises you can do for PFD. I'm not sure if that is where mine stems from but that book, a good chiropractor and physical therapist would be my next step. Thinking of ordering the book anyway, just to see if I feel any improvement. They sell it used for $7

Maybe try googling physical therapy for pelvic floor dysfunction in your area. I found one here in L.A. just in case.

There's also a book called When Sex Hurts

Alana and kathy are both right, both those books are good, When Sex Hurts is a particularly good one for trying to establish cause and Heal Pelvic Pain by Amy Stein is one with exercises in it for pelvic floor dysfunction. I've also got Ending Female Pain by Isa Herrera which has all the same stuff as Heal Pelvic Pain but with more exercises however it is considerably more expensive so Amy Stein's book is a good inexpensive option to get started.

I'm in the UK and you need a Women's Health Physio to address this, they know all about pelvic pain and can do the internal work. In the UK if an osteopath has the initials D.O after their name they can do internal work too. It's a good idea to get a standard physio/chiro/osteo to look at your alignment but for internal work you need a Women's Health Physio really. Mine's also on the NHS so free of charge and she is excellent, I've paid for physio for years for pelvic instability and got nowhere except broke and now I feel like I'm in the right hands. I'm having to do alot of work on stabilising my pelvis because of another condition I have but I do some relaxation exercises for the pelvic floor most days and I always know when I start clenching because my pain increases drastically. It's well worth buying Amy Stein's book and having a browse and getting alignment checked out too, my physio told me almost every woman she's treated for V has got Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction so it's a common theme (I've got it really severely which is why I need all the stabilising exercises too). All the muscles around the pelvis such as adductors, hip rotators, hip flexors, hamstrings, glutes, abdominals can contribute too so it's also helpful to search for trigger points and press them until they release so there's loads of home stuff that can be done to help and I find doing something constructive stops me getting down about it.

meelie,

You could try going to your local hospital and see if they have a women's internal specialist. Also you could check the Obstetrics/Gynecology area of the hospital. I did and I found the best doctors! From my experience you get better care being in a hospital. They should be able to set you up with a PT. Usually they have a PT within the hospital.

-Jen

Thank you all for your information and suggestions. I will definitely check out the book. Sadly my hospital down here in our rural area doesn't have any such information.
I started back on the neuronton and my face is beet red on the checks and under the cheeks. Not itching, just hot. I'm going to continue till Friday when I see my gyn.
I am going to definitely insist on PT so I surely hope she knows someone that knows something about this.
I just really feel like it pelvic muscle dysfunction because of my history with straining and that it started after a bad bout with constipation. I just pray I haven't ruined my muscles that they won't repair. I don't know whether Kegels would help or not. Some forums say yes and some so no.
The burning usually isn't so bad in the AM but as the day goes on whether I'm sitting or standing or walking it gets worse during the day to the point at evening I can't wait to lay down. It's like maybe the muscles are screaming cause they don't work well and are tired of carrying my organs. I don't know if that makes much sense or not.
I'll let ya'll know what she says on Friday.
Thanks so much for caring. I love you.