His and Her Health

Six years ago, I was diagnosed with lichen sclerosis by Dr.Gordon Davis. I've used Estrace cream nightly and compounded testosterone a couple of times a week and clobetasol a couple of times a week to keep it under control. I had to have some laser surgery for the adhesions but have had the disease under control for years.

A few years ago, I started having symptoms of peri-menopause along with what I "thought" were frequent yeast infections but were never found to be (I now think those were the beginnings of the vestibulitis). So, docs put me on a low-dose BC pill (don't remember which) to temper my hormones. After a few months, it caused spotting so I was switched to Ortho-Cyclen. Again, after a few months, I started bleeding for long periods. During that time, my symptoms (which were diagnosed last month as vestibulitis) got worse. So, I stopped the Ortho-Cyclen for a month. That's when I had HORRIBLE redness, pain, swelling from my pubic bone back to my tailbone. I couldn't even think straight. I had no evidence of infection so the military doc gave me Ultram for the pain. Then I started Microgestin Fe 1.5 which I'm on now.

I live overseas but I saw a gyn and a vulvar specialist in Houston last month who put me on 12 weeks of the Microgestin then one week off for a menstrual period to break up the cyclical nature of my flares (which took place the week before each period). He also told me to quit using the Estrace, testosterone and clobetasol topically since I no longer have signs of lichen sclerosis. He advocates bio-feedback as a first treatment but I can't do that here. His second treatment of choice is vestibulectomy, again not an option here. By the time I saw him, the worse of my flare up was gone, my pH was 5.0, and the yeast cultures came back negative. I was already on the Microgestin by then.

Reading what Dr. Gordon Davis (my specialist when I lived in Phoenix and my personal hero) and Dr. Goldstein are saying, I need to go off the pill and stick with the Estrace cream and testosterone cream that Dr. Davis started me on a few years ago. I'm just really terrified that, if I go off the Microgestin, I'll have a horrible flare again. The specialist in Houston prescribed 5% lidocaine ointment to try for 2 months on a cotton ball overnight. He says he's had 60% success with that. Of course, turns out I can't handle the base ingredients so I'm trying to learn what the best compounded base is for it. My military docs here want to help me out but have little knowledge so I do the research and turn it over to them. I'm taking 12.5 mg of Elavil each night right now with no real noticable difference, so I guess I'll increase it again in a few days. When I see a doc, I'm going to ask for a tricyclic with milder side effects.

Right now, I'm a little red with just a feeling of the vv area being there but not actual pain. My husband and I had gentle intercourse without pain the other night.

Has anyone out there had a big vestibulitis flare when they went off the BC pills?