Guest guest Posted April 16, 2003 Report Share Posted April 16, 2003 My philosophy with the antihistamines is that even the stronger ones with the anticholinergenic activity (like Atarax and Seldane but NOT Claritin or Allegra) may make you sleepy, but that's about it for side effects, so why not try it for a month. I mean, a month of feeling tired even with a small chance of making an improvement in my VV is an obvious decision for me! ;-) In fact, since she said that they were releasing histamine, I'm surprised that she didn't put you on something. I will say that I'm glad I started systemically... I sort of think of it as knocking down a building... start out with the big giant overpowered wrecking ball (oral antihistamines) then move to the smaller tools (topical antihistamines). What perplexes me is that with using the estrogen, you haven't seen ANY improvement. The reason this perplexes me is because you describe an increase in symptoms around the time your body has the least estrogen. Are you using the estrogen DURING your period? Maybe once a day isn't enough? (It wasn't for me when I started, and I too had worse pain around my period, particularly before I started using it during my period.) Maybe if there are histamines in the area, there is simply too much counteracting the estrogen? Perhaps the pads are further irritating you? (I saw a small improvement when I switched to unbleached natural cotton, and some of the women have found the reusable, washable, cloth pads to be great.) It's an interesting little puzzle, and I hope you find something to help soon! > > > Hi , > > Thanks for the response. I have been experiencing > symptoms since around November, after a UTI I had in > October. I went to a specialist in Philadelphia in > March and she diagnosed me with skenitis- she said the > skene's glands next to urethra are inflamed and > releasing a histamine that causes burning and > irritation. At times I do also feel a poking spasm > type pain near urethra. She prescribed estradiol cream > and atropine cream. I use the atropine in the morning > and the estradiol cream in the evening (since the > beginning of March). I still do not see an > improvement. The burning seems to get very bad right > before, during, and after menstruation. I was > wondering if an antihistamine would help (especially > around and during menstruation) to control the > burning. I have not even attempted sex since I have > had any symptoms, as I am afraid of making anything > worse. I am going to see the specialist again in 2 > 1/2 weeks and I am so discouraged to report that I do > not see an improvement yet. I was hoping to be better > by this time! She also did a swab pain test and > pinpointed the pain to the skene's glands. This is so > incredibly frustrating as I had wanted to try to > conceive this year, and of course, this is delaying > that! I feel like that will never happen at this > point! > > Maureen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 16, 2003 Report Share Posted April 16, 2003 Atropine cream to dry up secretions? It is a vasocontrictor - shrinks the blood vessels, and reduces the nerve response. But I don't know about it reducing histamine output... (I'm no expert on the matter! ;-) ) The atropine cream absolutely should not be absorbed systemically, so while I doubt an oral antihistamine would interfere, I'd definitely check with your doctor. (The effect that atropine has on the CNS makes it inappropriate to use systemically in most cases, unless you've had a really really bad allergic reaction to something and have gone into anaphylactic shock! :-) ) I would have to agree that many times it's a matter of getting things under control, but having to continue the treatment. Having gotten down to merely topical creams, I'm not too worried. A pea sized amount of estrogen applied to the vulva once a day is not systemtically absorbed and shouldn't (again, don't take my word for it, my doctor said it, but you should absolutely check with yours) affect a pregnancy. Or rather, the tradeoff is worth it. He also noted, however, that due to the increased estrogen in the body, some women are fine stopping the estrogen. And the topical antihistamine isn't systemtically absorbed either. I think there are some antihistamines that can be taken orally during pregnancy, but I think most of them are in the " believed to not cause harm " category, not the " we totally know these don't do an ounce of harm at all " category. For ME, I didn't try waiting for all pain to subside to have sex. Like I said, I'm only 90% there, and if I stop treatment for a week, I get more pain, so I wouldn't want to still not be having sex. Since most of my pain is with sex at this point (or wearing pants, but I don't do that any more), we have to try to see how the pain is. For me, if the pain outweights the pleasure, I stop. (If the pain's really really bad, I yell " out, out, out, get that thing out! " ;-) ) But every woman's different. I find that when the pain is down, having sex helps keep the pain down. Not too often, but not too infrequently. (Definitely less than once a day, but not less than once a week sort of thing - for ME.) But I did wait until there was a very significant reduction in pain before really trying sex again much. > > > I have been using the estrogen during my period as > well, but maybe because my estrogen levels are low at > that time of the month, one time a day is not enough > (as you had suggested). I will ask her about it when I > see her. > > I am thinking that the atropine cream is supposed to > dry up secretions, which is therefore intended to help > stop secreting the histamine? I don't know if I can > use an antihistamine along with this, or if I should > use an antihistamine to replace this? I will talk to > her about this as well. > > I have switched to the all cotton pads, since last > month, but truthfully, I didn't notice a difference. > > Do you know if you can use the estrogen cream and > antihistamines while you are pregnant? I am hearing > that even when someone gets the VV under control with > a treatment plan that works for her, that if she does > go off the treatment plan, even for a short time, the > symptoms get worse. Well once I do get these symptoms > under control (being still hopeful), I would love to > get pregnant and of course, this is a concern. > > Do I have to wait until all symptoms are alleviated > before having sex? Would sex just make this problem a > lot worse? > > Thanks, Maureen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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