[SpRiNkLeS]

HI Ladies. So notice how my “HI” is not attached with an exclamation point. I AM SO FRIGGIN NOT HAPPY. Lori was right, douching is bad. Very, very bad. I am now getting reverse effects from my Tea Tree Oil douches and honestly I can count the number of douches I have tediously performed and the magic number ladies…………FOUR. That’s it! Four friggin douches, nicely spaced within maybe a week and a half. Today my vagina gave me a lovely little surprise…a faint fart aroma. Yeah, I know! A FRIGGIN FART SMELL. I was like………OH MY GOSH. Are you friggin kidding me!!!!!!!!?

I thought smelling like shit was bad but seriously a fart whiff every now and again aint no walk in the park either. It is really hard to hold your head up high when this crap happens. I was doing so good too!! It’s those damn douches I tell ya!! They are EVIL.

EVIL, EVIL, EVIL!!!

Just as wildflower was saying, I too started noticing that just after my second douche I did not get the same effect as I did the first TTO douche. Every time is like that……not as tingly and fresh feeling as the one before it. Also the morning after you wake up from your douche is all great and crap but the next day is worse than if you didn’t douche at all. DAMNIT.

I will consider the suppositories but I am done with douching. Plus the shit stinks after a while, it stinks up the whole bathroom and I think it is wafting throughout the house because damn is it strong!!!! I don't think this is good for my kid to be POSSIBLY smelling (who knows) so for that alone I am done with the douche. I have to remind myself to keep faith that I WILL fight this crap…eventually find my cure or regulate my hormones soon, whatever comes first. Please ladies, keep posting success stories. I appreciate them so much. Those stories and my faith are what’s keeping me sane throughout this mess.

[wildflower]

So I've read through what I could...difficult to devote a lot of time with a 6 month old in the house...and I have a couple questions I guess. It sounds like lori agrees that douching could actually make the condition worse by causing PID. In her blog she notes some suggestions in how to apply HP wihtout douching, but overall doesn't recommend using the treatment. If I only use this for a single 1 week treatment as suggested in the link/study on lori's blog, would it really be problematic? If this is the route that I would take, what is the best application if I choose not to douche?

I like the description of the tea tree oil - an Altoid for the vagina! LOL! That's so true! But after that initial tingle, the benefits seem to be gone...except that it might cover the odor if you have one (I luckily don't). I understand that you want to use this treatment for up to 6 weeks. If it's a treatment that will work for you,...when would you start to experience the benefits? As I posted before, it's only been 2 days and things seem to be worse. I hate to continue if it's a bust.

I'm still unsure which direction to pursue at this point. I don't want to continue with TTO if it's not effective. I'm concerned that allowing the infection to get worse without effective treatment could cause permanent damage.

Again, I don't want to take the Metronidazole because I am breastfeeding and it is a Class C drug. I don't want to expose my son to unnecessary antibiotics.

Last, (I think) Fem D is mentioned often. It appears to be an expensive version of lactobacillus acidolphilus. I currently take Udo's Choice Probiotics which includes LA along with other probiotics. Is FemD really super special or more beneficial for ridding BV?

[jewelscando]

New here...was directed by someone else who thought this thread might be able to help me find natural remedies that actually work and can be used while breastfeeding. My BV has occurred (and typically occurs) as a result of treatment for a yeast infection. I've been prescribed Metronidazole, but don't want to take it while nursing. I started using tea tree oil soaked tampons 2 days ago, but symptoms seemed to have worsened. It was suggested that I douchre with hydrogen peroxide 50/50 solution. I was always told not to douche though and am concerned that it may actually push the infection into my uterus or fallopian tubes (based on something I had read online). I'm not sure where to go from here. I take probiotics on a daily basis...they had worked in preventing my recurrent yeast, bacterial and UTI's for over a year and I was ecstatic. Now they are back :-( Any help or direction from those of you who have had experience in getting rid of these nasty infections FOR GOOD would be greatly appreciated!!! My patience is waning as I've had issues with yeast and now this for over a month (this time around anyway...over 20 years though of experience with yeast, UTI's and bacterial infections).

WELCOME WILDFLOWER!!!!

I suggest you go through the board and read up on some different suggestions that the girls have come up with. It's worth the time to read, or go to BLOGS and check out Lori's Blog. She has hours and hours of information that she's done on what works, what doesn't, and so on.

Welcome to the board.. Hope you find help soon!!

[wildflower]

New here...was directed by someone else who thought this thread might be able to help me find natural remedies that actually work and can be used while breastfeeding. My BV has occurred (and typically occurs) as a result of treatment for a yeast infection. I've been prescribed Metronidazole, but don't want to take it while nursing. I started using tea tree oil soaked tampons 2 days ago, but symptoms seemed to have worsened. It was suggested that I douchre with hydrogen peroxide 50/50 solution. I was always told not to douche though and am concerned that it may actually push the infection into my uterus or fallopian tubes (based on something I had read online). I'm not sure where to go from here. I take probiotics on a daily basis...they had worked in preventing my recurrent yeast, bacterial and UTI's for over a year and I was ecstatic. Now they are back :-( Any help or direction from those of you who have had experience in getting rid of these nasty infections FOR GOOD would be greatly appreciated!!! My patience is waning as I've had issues with yeast and now this for over a month (this time around anyway...over 20 years though of experience with yeast, UTI's and bacterial infections).

[neverending]

Neverending: My husband is on Effexor and he takes his right before bed every night. I would probably ask your doctor about taking it with the diet pill, though, as I don't know how that would react with an anti-depressant?

THANKS SASSY!

[jewelscando]

TTO did nothing for me. I'm gonna do Flagyl and FemD bc it makes perfect sense. Do you still take TTO regularly or is your BV gone completely?

I ONLY do TTO the day after sex. Never have I done it daily, however, several sights suggest you do it for a period of days, I'm not sure what the days are though.

Sorry it didn't work for you. I would try the Flagyl and FemD like you said. Once again, what works for me, might not work for you and vice versa, so you need to find what works for you.

[sassy]

Neverending: My husband is on Effexor and he takes his right before bed every night. I would probably ask your doctor about taking it with the diet pill, though, as I don't know how that would react with an anti-depressant?

[neverending]

OK ladies:

I want to start taking the diet pill ALLI. I take effexor and I was wondering if anyone here has taken ALLI with an anti-depressant because I have no clue what time I should take it. The alli packet says take all vitamins and stuff at night but I was wondering if the effexor would be effective(the next day) if i took it at night before bed?

[mfc10]

Thanks Maggie for the information!! I'm still loving the TTO. It's worked wonders for me. No BV Symptoms what so ever.

Thanks for the thanks, but it was CanCan who actually found the link I was referring to.
Hugs,
Maggie

[mg86]

Hi everyone

Hope you all are doing well...does anyone else feel like they take a rediculous amount of pills every day?? I have recently bought some vitamins so daily I take: one multivitamin, one acidophilus, one fem doph, one rx essentials vitamin (just started trying these), my birth control, and my effexor. feels like so many! Almost feel like I need to get a weekly pill case or something!

Anyway..I haven't actually started taking the fem doph regularly yet. I have a 30 day supply and I am hoping by the time I finish it I will see improvement. Regarding the tree tea oil...I saw someone mention the suppositories, are these the ones from iherb.com? If so, are they sufficient in the dosage amount (regarding the recently posted article about low doses)

I am feeling pretty discouraged lately..seems my BV is getting a little worse than usual..although I did go out drinking on Friday..maybe that has something to do with it...

[mg86]

I take one FemDophilus everyday, and it worked for me. I don't have smell or discharge anymore. And I've never taken Flagyl. Ever.

my fem doph just arrived from iherb the other day...how long did you have to take it before you saw improvement?

[lucecita]

Thanks Maggie for the information!! I'm still loving the TTO. It's worked wonders for me. No BV Symptoms what so ever.

TTO did nothing for me. I'm gonna do Flagyl and FemD bc it makes perfect sense. Do you still take TTO regularly or is your BV gone completely?

[sciongal]

what is a high concentration? How do we know how much to use?

Tea Tree Oil Can Lead to Antibiotic Resistance - UU Research
15th February 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Repeated exposure to low doses of Tea Tree Oil – a common ingredient in many beauty products – can increase the chances of suffering from “superbug” infections, University of Ulster scientists have revealed.

They discovered that exposure to low doses of Tea Tree Oil make pathogens such as MRSA, E. coli and Salmonella more resistant to antibiotics, and capable of causing more serious infections.

Dr Ann McMahon and Professor David McDowell, members of the University’s Food Microbiology Research Group, said: “We have been growing pathogens such as MRSA, E-coli and Salmonella in low concentrations of tea tree oil. These concentrations are not sufficient to kill the bacteria, but can switch on their defense mechanisms. Unfortunately, these defence mechanisms have the added effect of making bacteria more resistant to antibiotics, and able to cause “harder to treat” infections.”

Tea Tree Oil is used commercially in many products including shampoos, body lotions and toiletries, but there is no legislation requiring manufacturers to state the concentration of tea tree oil in these products. This increases the risks that people will use low concentrations of tea tree oil, which fail to kill bacteria, but increase their resistance to antibiotics. So, if a person uses tea tree oil products on their skin repeatedly, any MRSA on their skin could develop increased resistance to the antibiotics which are used to control MRSA infections.

“The bottom line is that tea tree oil should not be used at low concentrations – less than 4% - to make sure that bacteria are killed, not just stressed. Otherwise we are just arming the bacteria against treatment by antibiotics.”

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, the scientists said: “Although tea tree oil may be an effective antimicrobial agent when appropriately used at high (bactericidal) concentrations, its application at low (sub-lethal) concentrations may contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens”.

http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2007/3000.html

Basically, just a warning that TTO can cause resistant bacteria if you use really lose doses.

I know a lot of you will reply and say " that's only for E.Coli, Salmonella, and MRSA" but those were just examples. I use TTO for other things, too. Just an interesting article....

[CarrieBradshaw]

Tea Tree Oil Can Lead to Antibiotic Resistance - UU Research
15th February 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email this Page |

Repeated exposure to low doses of Tea Tree Oil – a common ingredient in many beauty products – can increase the chances of suffering from “superbug” infections, University of Ulster scientists have revealed.

They discovered that exposure to low doses of Tea Tree Oil make pathogens such as MRSA, E. coli and Salmonella more resistant to antibiotics, and capable of causing more serious infections.

Dr Ann McMahon and Professor David McDowell, members of the University’s Food Microbiology Research Group, said: “We have been growing pathogens such as MRSA, E-coli and Salmonella in low concentrations of tea tree oil. These concentrations are not sufficient to kill the bacteria, but can switch on their defense mechanisms. Unfortunately, these defence mechanisms have the added effect of making bacteria more resistant to antibiotics, and able to cause “harder to treat” infections.”

Tea Tree Oil is used commercially in many products including shampoos, body lotions and toiletries, but there is no legislation requiring manufacturers to state the concentration of tea tree oil in these products. This increases the risks that people will use low concentrations of tea tree oil, which fail to kill bacteria, but increase their resistance to antibiotics. So, if a person uses tea tree oil products on their skin repeatedly, any MRSA on their skin could develop increased resistance to the antibiotics which are used to control MRSA infections.

“The bottom line is that tea tree oil should not be used at low concentrations – less than 4% - to make sure that bacteria are killed, not just stressed. Otherwise we are just arming the bacteria against treatment by antibiotics.”

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, the scientists said: “Although tea tree oil may be an effective antimicrobial agent when appropriately used at high (bactericidal) concentrations, its application at low (sub-lethal) concentrations may contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens”.

http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2007/3000.html

Basically, just a warning that TTO can cause resistant bacteria if you use really lose doses.

I know a lot of you will reply and say " that's only for E.Coli, Salmonella, and MRSA" but those were just examples. I use TTO for other things, too. Just an interesting article....

[jewelscando]

Apparently Tea Tree Oil has antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties. The bacteria associated with BV are more susceptible to TTO than our beneficial bacteria. So I guess this is why some women have controlled their BV using it.

[ These MIC data are similar to those obtained in previous studies which indicated that a variety of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria were susceptible to tea tree oil (2–4). The data also show that all lactobacilli tested were appreciably more resistant to tea tree oil than organisms known to be associated with BV, with at least a twofold difference in MIC90 results. Therefore, the clinical success reported by Blackwell (1) may be due, in part, to the susceptibility of BV-associated organisms to tea tree oil and the relative resistance of commensal lactobacilli.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...cgi?artid=89050 ]

Thanks Maggie for the information!! I'm still loving the TTO. It's worked wonders for me. No BV Symptoms what so ever.

[CanCan]

Hi, Jewels...After using boric acid for a couple of weeks, back when I was having recurring bouts of BV & yeast infections, I then used tea tree oil suppositories that I bought at my local healthfood store (also available online) for maintenance purposes. I did this for about 2 months, using a piece of a suppository every other day.

The TTO was wonderful. I found a link via Google Scholar (I no longer have quick access to it) that tested TTO in vitro on strains of the good vaginal lactobacili. It showed that it did not kill off the good bacteria, unlike boric acid & most prescription meds. It does have effective antiviral, antifungal & antibacterial properties. (I read that it even will kill the MRSA antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria that has been much in the news in the recent past.)

Cheers!
Maggie

Apparently Tea Tree Oil has antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties. The bacteria associated with BV are more susceptible to TTO than our beneficial bacteria. So I guess this is why some women have controlled their BV using it.

[ These MIC data are similar to those obtained in previous studies which indicated that a variety of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria were susceptible to tea tree oil (2–4). The data also show that all lactobacilli tested were appreciably more resistant to tea tree oil than organisms known to be associated with BV, with at least a twofold difference in MIC90 results. Therefore, the clinical success reported by Blackwell (1) may be due, in part, to the susceptibility of BV-associated organisms to tea tree oil and the relative resistance of commensal lactobacilli.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...cgi?artid=89050 ]

[sciongal]

Hey random question, does anyone's symptoms improve during and after a night of drinking?

I feel like mine do, but maybe I'm crazy. Just killing time until my Fem D arrives (I'll be taking it with Flagyl, thanks Lori)

no, for me the symptoms get noticably worse after drinking...I have pretty much quit for that reason,

[CanCan]

Is Fem Dophilus by itself pointless? Should it always be paired with Flagyl or similar?

I take one FemDophilus everyday, and it worked for me. I don't have smell or discharge anymore. And I've never taken Flagyl. Ever.

[lucecita]

Hey random question, does anyone's symptoms improve during and after a night of drinking?

I feel like mine do, but maybe I'm crazy. Just killing time until my Fem D arrives (I'll be taking it with Flagyl, thanks Lori)

[stressed43]

Flagyl works. Just doesn't prevent recurrence. Thank you!!!

(Sorry to sound testy, but hey, it's been frustrating. So many people in here repeating the mantra, "Flagyl doesn't work" over and over. Gah.)


Anyway, I know that going to the doctor is annoying and expensive, but I do think it's important that a doctor is involved somewhere in your treatment, and that you're not 100% self-treating. BV has a nasty smell, yes, but it's not just about the smell! Untreated BV can have health consequences, so it's about health. And if you restore the health, the smell will go away too.

Nono! Thank you~ I didn't even KNOW about FemD until I stumbled upon this site! I also think I can use it once a week and it will still be effective (unlike certain drugs where if you don't take it for 2 weeks straight your body will learn to fight it off) because since the first day I have been symptom free and I've only taken maybe a total of 4. However, I totally agree with you about seeing my doctor, but now I can go for the regular Papsmear checkup instead of going EVERY 3 months and complaining about smell =)