I am in misery these days. It's been getting worse over time. I am 46 and my periods are starting to change timing. I was a consistent 35 days apart/7 days long (see, friends would be envious that I had my periods so far apart but I made up for it with longer periods! ) in my younger years. Over the last couple of years I am now 25-28 days apart and 3-4 days long. I have a ton of peri symptoms but the worst (besides being HOT all the time...no flashes....just HOT any time I move around!)..is this horrible vaginal pain/dryness.

Now..what it feels like is that I have had one very tight pair of jeans all day that is riding up into my crotch! You know how good it feels to pull that out (frontal wedgie if you will) but how sore your front end is afterwards? I'm like that all the time...even with a dress on! There are times when I wake up in the morning and my vulva lips seem swollen and sticky (like dry lips stick together). Then I burn a LOT! My vagina is fine..no pain..sex is fine with lube of course. My gyno said two years ago I was too young for atrophy and since it was OUTSIDE the vagina..it was probably just caused by the extra pounds I now carry around. He would not give me any estrogen cream (I asked) so I have been on my own. I will go to see him again for my pap in a few months and hope that this time I have hit that "magic number" for him to consider peri!

Anyone else have these symptoms? Were you diagnosed with dryness? Can you have dryness ONLY on the outside (vulva lips rather than vagina)??

I want to hear I am "normal" as it pertains to peri!

I have tried so many things on the area for relief. NOTHING works. Something will seem to work in the AM but by PM, I am burning worse! Vit E, MetroGel, coco butter, olive oil, shea butter, and herbal salve called Sensual Savvy (this is the one that I can tolerate for a few days before it bothers me), calendula ointment....the list goes on. I purchased YES lubricant and all was well till the next morning when my lips were once again swollen. Forget anything with chemicals in it, glycerin (gives me infections..bacterial AND yeast related) or alcohols! What I need to do is find a way to repair the skin so then I can use these other products and they won't sting/burn.

So..if there's room in the vaginal woes boat...I'm climbing in!

It sounds like VA to me, and although i've not heard of this exterior only condition of yours, well, we all here know no two peri-cases are identical. I'd go back to the doctor and ask for premarin again. If s/he says no, ask why. You're not too young to be going through this stuff, and any competent gyno knows it.

premarin is well absorbed, and processed locally (as opposed to estrogen tablets that are metabolized in the liver) There should be no reason to not prescribe a couple of tubes just to see if it is effective, given that its the safest of all forms of HRT.

If the gyno still says no, get a new one. You're going to have more and more symptoms, and this guy doesn't sound all that helpful if he knows that you're suffering all day flushing too. Has your gyno discussed HRT or BHRT with you as an option?

Extra pounds my aunt Sally...... harumph.

When I hear women mention burning down there, and could it be feminine dryness, I cringe. For almost 3 years, I was getting that on and off..and during the off time, I was getting what felt like papercuts that burned when urine touched them, but I could never see anything.

The "yeast infection" I treated 3 times in a row..until I realized I was getting no better. Went to the doctor..no yeast.

I never felt "right" down there.

I came here to look for help and tried a few products. One that helped me was creme de la femme. They have a website. I used this and it felt natural..no grease, no staining.

So..life continued and I used that when I needed to.

Summer before last..that horrific burning was back..and again..I thought it was yeast and self treated. I ended up making it worse, because now I wasnt only red between the lips..but I seemed to have burns all over down there..and one on the clitoris that made it swell like a rosebud.

I was taking aveeno baths and bought every feminine product I could find..nothing seemed to help me.

The burning got so bad, that I ended up in the emergency room..where they took a quick peek and said yes, you are red and gave me diflucan. I took that, and tried replens. This gave me that streaked red discharge that just about flipped me out..so I made a gyno appt..finally.

I also kept getting this itch, in the pubic hair. And when I say itch..I mean itch..it was brutal. That seemed to happen most if I was over heated. Inspecting with a magnifying mirror showed only flakey dry skin like dandruff.

So, I went to my appointment. No yeast. Nothing wrong. When I asked why, then, was I burning and itching in the hair area and had been getting what felt like paper cuts..I got the song and dance about being dry. They gave me more diflucan, why I will never know..since nobody found any yeast. I left there..and knew I was on my own.

I burned pretty much the whole summer.

Something else was happening too..that I never ever connected to my burnings. I had a dry patch of skin on my ear..that I could peel..and it would come back. I got a few patches of dry skin in my scalp. Later on in the fall..I got some red blotches between a couple of fingers..like a rash. None of this stuff looked the same and I developed them far enough apart not to associate them.

In november, I noticed this red round dry patch on my backside. I didnt know what the heck this was, so I tried first one cream, then another. I didnt pay much attention to it..it was holiday season and I was busy. By the end of december..I began to use over the counter hydrocortisone on it...and the next time I looked..this thing had gotten larger and clearing in the middle. OMG I thought. this is ringworm..and began to use lamisl. By now, it was january.

A few days later, I realized that I felt very itchy down below..but had ignore it, since I was used to the itch. I dont know what made me look..but I found this huge red and purple circles..on my inner thigh and by night time, they were all over the place and clear up the crack of my backside. I was sure that I spread this ringworm..and now had jock itch.

I called my gyno office, I use a midwife there..and I told her what I suspected. She told me to continue with the lamisil, it would take a couple of weeks to go away..but, if it didnt..I should come in.

I was taking two showers a day. I was washing my sheets daily, mopping floors, sanitizing the bathroom, spraying lysol...etc. Two weeks later, it wasnt much better and in fact, I was getting some, where none was before..and it was burning like the devil...so, I went in.

First she looks at my backside. (midwife). Thats not ringworm, she said. I said then if it isnt..whats all over the place down here. She comes and looks, tells me to wait and in comes the gyno, who looks. First, she scares the heck out of me with the one on my backside, telling me it needs to be biopsied and I should see a dermatologist. Then she comes and looks down below and says..I dont know what that is..but it looks like its going away..put some a and d on it. I was laying there wondering what the devil I was doing here, with two professionals that were clueless.

Well, it took me a few days to calm down, before I made an emergency visit to a dermatologist. I got the physicians asst. She took one look at my rump and said..that not ringworm..its psoriasis. I said then whats down there? As I was standing..she could see it peeking out from under my bottom. She said..thats psoriasis too. 30 seconds. In 30 seconds I got a diagnosis. I then mentioned my scalp and my ear and what I had between my fingers..and yep..it all looked different and was all psoriasis. And the itchy pubic hair and yeast infections I thought I was getting...psoriasis. She called in the doctor. He took a look at everything and confirmed it.

Now, I am not saying that every burn we get down below is psoriasis starting.....but, if you have any other skin ailments, very dry skin, itching, especially at night or if you are heated, like under a blanket, peeling skin, pink dry areas, dry spots on the scalp, or even what you think might be a pimple on your body and think its coming from your greasy moisturizer or maybe because you didnt moisturize...and you are burning down there...you can have it too..and not even know it.

For all of that time..I never connected one thing with the other...it all looked and felt different.

One thing I found out tho is..you can use hydrocortisone down there. What you buy over the counter, can NOT thin the skin, its way too weak. Even what they gave me, in ointment form, is too weak. Its soothing and it helps.

And if you have this burning and any other skin ailment. Find a dermatologist. They gynos dont seem to know enough to recognize it nor treat it.

I will have this for life. I continue to get a spot from time to time (there) mostly on the innner thigh..but, I know what to do for it now. I no longer itch, burn or bleed.

If this helps just one person, I will be very happy.

just ducky.. good for you! it's not easy talking about these things, but you have given me courage to also suggest a dermatologist.. i had an itch.. dry and burning.. and a feeling like splitting.. i was very uncomfortable.. the gp first looked wise and knowing and gave me an estrogen cream that made my vulva red and swollen.. did nothing for the itch. next he treated me for candida, no relief. i demanded a test when he started telling me it was a chronic case and i should change my diet etc.. it was not candida. i started looking for clues on the internet, and self diagnosed Lichen Sclerosis, and demanded a biopsy, as it's the only way to know for sure. long story shortened - i finally saw a dermatologist who confirmed this. treatment really only controls it, it is incurable, an autoimmune skin disorder that is mostly seen with menopausal women.. (some young girls, as young as 6, and some boys/men also have this, but in general, it's meno women) see a dermo.

no other way to say it.... have you considered herpes?

i really wish we could edit own posts here.. seems this is the only site i have posted on where self edit in the first 5-10 minutes after posting is not allowed. sigh. but i only thought of herpes as it was suggested to me, while i searched for a reason for my own discomfort. i certainly don't mean to be offensive.

Zen, If you are addressing the original poster, I dont think its herpes. When I first got this burning, all I had was redness on the inside of the lips by the vagina entrance. I think with herpes, there is a sore or pimple. Nothing was there.and I was looking constantly with a magnifying mirror in direct sunlight.

When I got it bad, summer before last, I had used monistat for 7 days, and had continued to use it on the outside. The monistat was doing nothing but keeping me mushy and gushy..which seemed to help. I then saw lesions. I thought I had a chemical burn so stopped using it and those went away. The first poster didnt mention seeing anything, which for almost two years, I saw nothing but occasional redness in that area.

I, just like these other posters, was trying to find something to relieve the burning. A&D worked for a while, but soon, it began to burn worse..like fire. I tried glycerin products, lubricating products, vit e oil, you name it..I tried it. Some, burned so badly, I would jump into the shower to get it off.

During all of this time, I would complain to hubby. He kept telling me, I was doing it to myself, with all of the stuff I was putting there. Ya know, he had me believing that so I would put nothing...which sometimes was worse.

In 3 years, it never totally went away. If I wasnt burning..I felt irritated, if I wasnt irritated, I felt the paper cut feeling. When I didnt mention it, hubby would think I was fine. I used to tell him, I am NOT fine. Its not right down there.

I rolled my eyes with the feminine dryness bit, because I was NOT dry on the inside...this was all on the outside (although, psoriasis can go inside too). I knew the dryness bit was a copout doctors use, when they dont know what you have..just like they blame everything under the sun on stress, when they are clueless.

When I broke out in those huge circles, that I thought was jockitch (as per pix on the net), I had those same burn looking lesions on the feminine skin. The thing was..I read on many sites, that jockitch doesnt go on the feminine skin..so even that puzzled me.

Had I not gotten that...which was years after this burning began, I would still be wondering what the heck I had that was burning the daylights out of me.

What amazes me the most is..genital psoriasis is NOT uncommon. There was NO reason the gyno and her sidekick didnt recognize it..or even mention it as a "could be". I cant believe in all of their professional years, nobody ever saw it, or knew the symptoms. I have a classic case...nothing odd.

I come back here to this forum from time to time, to read. I see so many women burning to beat the band, getting the same old garbage repies from their gynos. Feminine dryness, peri, meno, etc. I was 60 years old, a year ago when I got diagnosed..11 years past menopause. Now, they are trying to tell me I am dry? But only sometimes it burns like you are sitting on coals, and other times just feels like a cut when you pee?

What I had on my regular skin, as far as psoriasis, was so vague, I paid no attention to it. I have it mild and the spots I get on my body are like a mosquito bite. One here, one there. You think something bit you or you got a pimple.

I think everyone has had a dry patch in their scalp. You know, the kind that you pick at from time to time..and your hair dresser tells you to change hair color or shampoo? I was doing that...nothing helped much...but, I never associated that, with what I was experiencing down there.

For years, in winter, I would get this pink dry patch of skin in my eyebrow. It didnt look like the "mosquito bites", nor did it itch or burn, and it would leave in the summer. Thats psoriasis too..it has since moved to the other eyebrow.

I am mentioning all of this because, at my age, with the net availble to us for info, I never connected any of this..because none of it showed up at the same time. I got them months apart. Would you think a patch of dandruff gotten two years later, had anything to do with your feminine burning issue?

As much as I read and as many pictures I viewed, I never ever thought of psoriasis or even looked at pix (which I wouldnt have recognized anyway, since none that I have seen, since, looks quite like what I have...because they show the worst cases, and mine is very mild...other than when it was down there.)

Skin is skin. Feminine skin is skin. If you have gone the gyno route and they are telling you that its dryness, but you feel you arent dry...and if you have any type of abnormality elsewhere on the skin, itching, dryness, dry patches, pimples, bug bites in winter (there usually arent bugs around), skin peelings, scalp itch, dry scalp, excessive dandruff, or no dandruff but a patch on the head you can pick at...pink blotchy rash, round red or pink rash..even if its tiny spots.....go see a dermatologist. My hubby kept telling me to do this..but since my problem was down below, I told him that women go to a gyno for things like that. I swear, I never associated any of these mild skin issues, with my feminine problem. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Talking about the genitals, seems to be a problem everywhere. When I was finally diagnosed, I did web searches on genital psoriasis...which is called inverse, and this is the kind you get under the breast and underarms, too. It doesnt look like the rest..it isnt dry, but seems to be within the skin almost. There is very little info around. I also joined the national psoriasis foundation forum and read on the psoriasis forum from the uk. Even there, people are embarrassed to mention it and discuss it.

I have posted several times on it, and my private messages get full of people asking me exactly what it looks and feels like.

I am not embarrassed to talk about it (as you can see). I only wish, someone had told me what I could possibly have that was causing all of this burning. I wouldnt have had to suffer for all of that time, partially thinking I was a headcase.

So..I come here in the hopes that someone will read this..and think, hey, thats just like what I have..maybe going to the gyno is the wrong place for me. Oh, and there are tests they can perform, if they arent sure its psoriasis. I didnt need any. There were no doubts about what I had...just by looking.

(I also wish we could edit here).