Finally gone after 5 years

I suffered with this for 5 years. Take Fluconazole for 1 to 2 weeks and then take one when/if symptoms reappear. A few months after doing this week of treatment it went away forever. Over the years I had tried everything else. Nothing else worked and I am so glad that hell is over. Be skeptical of homeopathic remedies.

That's really good news Lara!

I had Fluconazole as a thrush treatment for a good few months. I would take it for a week, then take one tablet at the start of every week to ward off any more thrush outbursts. It worked great for a good while and I stopped taking it with no further trouble. My recurrent thrush then came back, and after taking Fluconazole again for a few weeks I was still suffering, and thus the story of V starts!

It's really interesting that this worked for you though. I think I'll have to look into it again. I'm willing to try anything!

Thanks for the heads up Lara!

Yeah so I took 1 and a half 100mg tablets daily. Apparently it was a sub-clinical yeast infection. I had ruled out that it had anything to do with yeast/thrush because I did not have any visible symptoms and the over-the-counter yeast treatments (Monistat etc) didn't help at all. But it was definitely related to yeast, at least in my case.

Wow that sounds amazing! Ill ask my doctor about it. How long have you been pain free?

10 months so far. And not even a hint of it!

OK so I'm being a bit thick but how long did you take it for? Every day for a week once a month? Thanks!

Could you tell us a bit more about your story?
As Liz said, how and when did you take the medication etc? And what were your V symptoms? Thanks and I'm really pleased for you!!

after waiting forever to see a gyne, she said she 'thinks' its a yeast, even though i have undoubtedly all the symptoms of V. she put me on fluconzoale which i had taken when all this hell first started. well it never worked and so when i went back to see her the second time, she said well it could be endometriosis. i know it isn't because i had this 9 years ago and had surgery done for it. the pain i had back then is absolutely in no way what i am having now.. nevertheless, being so desperate for some reprieve, i thought, i should just listen to her and go on whatever medication she was about to give me. anyways, she did not prescribe it that day and told me to come again. so this week, for the 3rd time i saw her and thinking she was going to talk about endometriosis, she completely forgot about that, never brought it up and now said maybe its a hernia. so she sent me for another ultrasound, and said if that comes back normal then she cannot help me. this is a very hopeless situation and i'd rather die that go through another day. today i was just lying down in my living room with my husband watching tv.. and i just began to visualize taking all my codeine pills, mashing up them to powder and drinking them down with a glass of juice. but then i had to remind myself, that though it seems i would never ever be able to live a normal life again, God is able to make a way where there is none.. and even if He didn't, well atleast His grace will take me through, ONE DAY AT A TIME. i am glad the fluconzaole worked for you. and maybe something else would work for me.

I took 1 and a half 100mg Fluconazole tablets daily for one week. And then I took one pill a week for about 3 weeks after.

The plan was to take it for 2 weeks because the study my doctor was referring to had participants take it for 2 weeks. But I couldn't tolerate the side effects and I wasn't sure it would work anyway. I don't remember exactly what the side effects were, they weren't too bad but I just wasn't too motivated as I thought it was a shot in the dark. But I have never had any symptoms since, as was the case for a significant proportion of participants in the study.

My V symptoms were, ughh I don't even want to think about it... but, well they were achy V, very painful if not impossible to have intercourse, it felt like my vulva secreted tabasco sauce, achy ovaries, hurt to sit, made me lethargic when it flared up - which was for about a week or more at a time and then it disapated for 1 - 3 weeks. The cycle was not related to my mentrual cycle. Throbbing. Burning. No visible signs, though sometimes had tears like small paper-cuts.

Thanks Lara, that's really interesting. I'm thinking of taking the idea to my doctor, would love to find that study. Do you know any more about it e.g. did it focus just on people with subclinical infections or all types of yeast? Thanks for your help xx

I wish I had the study, but I do not. I also moved, so I no longer see that doctor. The study focused on people with vulodynia, not specifically with any recognized yeast infection. You're very welcome! I just read once that V success stories are rarely posted because once the individual is all better, they are less inclined to revisit these sites. So I wanted to make the effort to let you all know. It was horrible to suffer through and after 5 years I almost resigned to the idea that it would never end. But I'm so relieved and so grateful to scientific research studies like these. Best of luck to you!

Gutted! I tried this idea...150mg fluconazole DAILY for 3 months...did nothing apart from stop the white discharge...was so upset when it didn't cure me

If I ever can have sex again though I will def take the weekly dose of fluconazole, as I'm so prone to yeast infections xx

Hm, it's proving difficult to find! This is the only study I can find that mentions vulvodynia & diflucan. I don't think it's the right one cos they do specifically look for yeast, but it's interesting nonetheless cos it shows colposcopy can show up yeast even when a culture doesn't - and in those patients, long-term yeast treatment had a 60% success rate.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17286065

So I tried this.... and it seems to have worked not 100% but 85% at least! Iv not had any pain since I last posted which was a month ago (maybe more, maybe less) I still have slight pain but nothing like what I had previously. Im just hoping and praying it continues

Fingers crossed
Px

Candida (yeast) can be systemic as well. A blood test will tell. I tested positive and my doctor, who is not a gyn, but specializes in integrative medicine is treating me with 100 mg Diflucan twice daily. I tried 200 mg once daily, but that way the die-off reaction was so bad I could hardly function. I`m on it for 2 weeks, off for one week. The theory is that the yeast spores, which the Diflucan does not get, can develop during that week off into yeast to be then killed by the meds. We are planning to do this until I have no longer a reaction to the meds, which will tell that the yeast is dead. At the same time I went on a low-carb diet to literally starve the yeast. The only carbs I eat come from veggies. No starches whatsoever. I do have other food issues as well (I posted the histamine topic yesterday), so I`m on a very restricted diet.
There is another yeast though, Candida glabrata, which does not respond to Fuoconazole at all.