hi girls, listen, if any of you get vaginal "symptoms" would you please post them here! The thing is, I'd say, over the last two months, my vulva area has been going crazy!..lol..i know that may sound funny, and I know i posted a few days ago about "vaginal anxiety", but NOW, there's even MORE symptoms down there. Yes, all the "vaginal anxiety" is still there, the feeling of being on the verge of an orgasm, the feeling of needing to urinate ALL THE TIME, but now we add ... let's see, uummm.....DRYNESS, CHAFING, SORENESS, HOTNESS (yes, a feeling of plain old "hotness" down there), and the urine is also hot, not all the time, but enough....then, i get this strange sensation around the bladder area, not necessarily a full bladder feeling, but more like some sort of "full" feeling in the bladder area, or almost a stinging feeling in there, and down in the vulva too .... i had a full exam, and urinalysis, and nothing is wrong, so here we go....i guess, it's hormonal.


I was thinking about asking my GYN for an RX for Beist, a vaginal creme to help with these sympotms, anyone know about that creme? does it work. how about anything over the counter.? I've tried the usual OTC stuff, and to be honest, it really doesn't do much. I heard that Beist releives you of that feeling of constantly needing to urinate, does anyone here use that?


thanks ladies, I do appreciate the input, this is really driving me nuts!!!!!

OMG ! VAGINAL ANXIETY! LMAO!

I started to get vaginal weirdness late last year. It feels like a lot of pressure and being on verge of an orgasm. I also have "spasms" down there if that makes sense. Ive had this sensation 3 times already.

When I started puberty I distinctly remember feeling a lot of pressure and weirdness in the vagina. If course that went a away when my teenage hormones leveled off. Maybe this is related as we enter menopause our hormones are going the other way?

Hi Gia,

LOL...yes, vaginal anxiety! but, it's true, right?!!! ok, i agree, i also get the pressure feeling down there, like you need to push something out! what the heck is that? I too get "spasms" down there, and it almost feels like spasms up around the bladder area, my dr. says...HORMONES! HOLY COW! this is to much! I have been having these LOUSY feelings down there now for about 2 mos.! almost all the time! UGH! Now during puberty, I really didn't have to many problems to speak of, so I don't know why my body is taking this "change" so badly ...

Mydarling, I don't know if this will help you or not...we sort of touched ont his a few weeks ago when we were BOTH having very similar symptoms....anyway my urologist gave me overactive bladder pills....though I am a bit atypical in my symtpoms...it is helping and I will take them for a few weeks....it took a while to kick in...but now I am much better....you might mention this as well to your doctor Joan

Hi My darling,
I know that you said that you were checked out a few weeks ago but it does sound like a mild case of cystitus to me.
feeling of wanting to urinate, stinging, feeling on the verge of orgasm etc etc, this is the irritation of it.
You can do a lot for yourself by drinking loads, which helps flush the nasties out. Especially if you can bear to add a little bicarb of soda to the water, especially in the morning.
it maybe that things are just a bit unbalanced down there. Do not drink things which are acidy, like grapefruit juice or too much orange juice.

hope it gets better soon
Caroline

hi ladies,


slowbear, yes you and i had similar symptoms, i remember that. ... so, you are taking overactive bladder pills...what are they called? yeah, i will be seeing my GYN on June 9th,..so, i'll ask about that, what was the name? let's hope that helps!

carolineuk....hi,...you know, i kept thinking the same thing, so i researched on and on ..... asked my dr. about that, and there doesn't seem to be any cystitis....she says it's hormonal ... and i wouldn't be surprised. yet, the symptoms SEEM to be a mild case of cystitis! i agree. ok, so.yeah, i'll try the bicarb idea, thank you. I have REPLENS, which, helps some, but doesn't take it completley away.

thank you ladies! i love you all!

Your post did make me chuckle. Could be hormones as your doctor said, Vaginal Atrophy. You know it not only affects your vaginal tissues but all the tissues down there including your urinary tract as they thin out in menopause and gets dry.

Good luck. Hope it gets better. I cannot imagine that...I would probably go nuts. LOL

Hi, mydarling -

I'm going through similar stuff. I'm going through peri, I'm sure - I'm 51 and my periods had been fairly regular, but I've had occasional urethra sensitivity (as if I might have a slight UTI), which have been helped by taking bicarb (tablet form). Those symptoms went away, and I thought I was past that. Nope - my period hasn't shown up this month, and my urethral symptoms have started bothering me again. So, I'm back on the bicarb, which I know must help me somewhat, but I'm still having sensitivity down there.

Ya know, I'm just so tired of all of this. Like most of you, I've been dealing with female issues since I first started my period, when I was 13 years old. That's what? - 38 years ago! So, for 38 years I've been putting up with the maintenance and discomfort of being a female - and now there's this, more agony.

Why can't the periods just stop?? I would love to be able to be period-free, SYMPTOM-free, and feel good and still be young enough to enjoy my life.

Sorry. I just had to complain a little. When I don't feel good down below, it's maddening and drives me crazy.

Boy do I agree about the whole period thing - and I am only 42 this year! Mind you I have had end most of the time since I started my periods, and then 2 beautiful children and about 18 months + breastfeeding break from periods in around 38 years. And they call us the weaker sex!!!

Hi, nzmum! We are definitely NOT the weaker sex, for sure. I'm the same as you - the only time I've been period-free is when I've had my children (four biological - I have five, total, including an adopted child) and have nursed them. Otherwise, I've dealt with this stuff for 38 years, too.

OH GOD YOU GUYS! I HATE THIS! I am so glad Bugaboo, that you said you had this too, i mean, i cried! ok, i'll try the bicarb.....tablets?????? what do you do, jsut drop it in water? does it really help the sensitive bladder and urethra?

ok, one other thing................i've noticed, this past few months, that my whole "urinary" thing is off.......in other words....when i was "normal", (even just recently, DURING peri....before the bladder thing started) ...... if i would drink a glass of water, i'd have to "go" in about half an hour...to an hour.....and then, a good amt........NOT NOW! now, it's all diff. now, I can drink a gallon of water....and not go for hourss, and only a little! WHAT THE HECK? or some days, it's the other way aroudn! A friend of mine has this too, so it's not just me...and she's 51 and in peri too.


OH DEAR GOD.......what is this?

I HATE IT, TOO!!!! Times a thousand!!!!!!! Mydarling, I just now took two more bicarb tablets.

Here's the thing . . . we have to make sure we don't have UTI's or something else down there. Now, in the past, whenever I've had these sensitive urethra episodes, the bicarb has helped (in fact, I read about bicarb on one of these boards, sometime last year) - and also, I've read that bicarb is good to help get rid of UTI's. I don't know what an MD would say about that, though.

Anyhow, if you do NOT have a UTI, or something else, you might just be experiencing sensitivity due to thinning tissues down there. Urine is acidic, so the bicarb helps tone it down a little, so that your tissues are less bothered by it. (I think that's what the bicarb does - anyone know, for sure?) So, if it's not a UTI, the bicarb should help - and if it IS a UTI, the bicarb should also help, and minimally won't hurt, for sure.

So far, for me, the bicarb has helped. The episodes of sensitivity last for a couple of days, then they go away (as long as I take the bicarb). However, this time the bicarb is not making the sensitivity go away. Maybe I just need more time - OR - maybe I will end up having to go back to my urologist and having him check my urine. I might even call this afternoon and make an appointment. I really go from day to day now, minute to minute, trying to decide how to manage myself and my symptoms.

I would trade this urethra/urine stuff for a year's worth of hot flashes! (which, for some odd reason, I've never had - yet).

I don't know about how much urination is okay . . . seems like if you drink about 8 oz. or so, every hour, you would be going to the bathroom on the hour. It seems like I'll have this sensitivity, and be going all the time - then I worry about UTI's, etc. - or, if I'm not experiencing the sensitivity, then I don't go as often. Sometimes I drink water, and drink and drink it, and still not have to go.

Help, help! We're all adrift on the SS Menopause!

Really, it's such a mess. It's such an impediment to what should be a happy time in our lives. Gad sakes, I'm TIRED OF THIS!!!!!!

oh Bugaboo..lol....I know, this is absolutley awful! and i agree, i would take some other symptom, such as hot flashes, WAY BEFORE this urinary thing! THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE WORST..........SO FAR! this is the most bothersome, distracting, frightening, disturbing, life altering symtom i think i've had really.....and i've had so many bad ones, and yet, to be honest, this takes the cake! The feeling of constantly having to go is insane! i don't just feel it in my bladder, it's in the urethra too....do you feel it there too?

How many times a night do you get up to "go"? For me, probably about 4 times a night.....but, even still, i can come walking out of the bathroom, feel "ok" for a few moments, then that feeling is right there again! I have to lay on my side to make it better, and sort of curl myself up......I got that tip from my friend i told you about, whose lived with this or 20 years!


NO, it's not a UTI....i had a urinalysis on April 30th, and it's ok. I don't know anymore.......I THINK i had a MILD UTI....or maybe the same thing as you said.....where you THOUGHT you had one...but it wasn't....well, maybe that was me too, since i never really had any stinging or burning when i'd go.....just that ever present FULL BLADDER FEELING.......and i find it all to coincidental, that this whole bladder thing, started up, last month, when i was 2 weeks late for my period......coincidence? I don't think so....maybe hormonal. (plus, also remember, that FULL BLADDER feeling totally vanished, IMMEDIATLEY, the minute, literally, the VERY MINUTE i saw blood. when my period started) ..... which is why, when my dr. did the pelvic and urinalysis (on april 30th), he said, it could be hormonal, since it just VANISHED once i got my period.......and now, you're saying as well, that this time around the bicarb isn't helping, and that it's worse now, before your period.....see, doesn't this all sound hormonal related, or what?

YES, THE SS MENOPAUSE! .lol.... ..... oh man, I feel like I'm ADRIFT out there somewhere, in the fog!

OH WAIT.....one more thing......what seems to come along with this ...is this feeling of needing to sort of "push" something out from down there.....i can't tell if that feeling is coming from the vagina, or urethra.....this is driving me absolutley off the wall! It's like it feels very heavy and full down there, in the vulva area.....and up inside, up where your bladder and uterus would be, it has that feeling, of pushing something out.......it's totally crazy and i want to pull my hair out!

Oh, mydarling - you nailed it when you said it's "most bothersome, distracting, frightening, disturbing, life altering symptom"!!
It really is hellish!! I told my husband today to make an appointment for me with the urologist.

If I don't have a UTI, then I'll have to suffer with this crap, for gawd only knows how long. --- I don't have stinging or burning, either - my symptoms sound exactly like yours - FULL BLADDER FEELING, with a near-constant urge to go - like there's an open nerve down there, exposed to air or something.

YES, YES - it's the urethra! Not especially my bladder - nope, it's the urethra.

UTI's scare me. Last year - late winter/spring of '07 - I had a nasty UTI, but it was all in the urethra part. My internist missed it, so did my ob/gyn. Their urinalysis tests did not show anything unusual. However, after several weeks of agony, I went to my urologist (also my husband's urologist), and his test showed some white blood cells, and he promptly put me on Cipro. When I told him my urine had been tested by my internist, who found nothing wrong, the urologist said, "That's the trouble with internists." Hmmmm.

Well, anyhow, this stuff DOES alter a person's life. When I'm achey down there, like I am now, I cannot think of anything else, barely. How can I?? This constant aching drives me nuts, makes me cranky, depresses me, and really affects the way I feel.

The thought has crossed my mind that it could be IC (Interstitial Cystitis), but I don't think so. I really believe that hormonal changes affect the tissues down there -- things become thinner, more delicate, more suseptible to urine's acid, infections, etc. Of course, that WOULD be the peri/menopause symptom I would get!!! Like I said - and like you said - bring on the hot flashes, but PUH-lease take this urethral discomfort away!!!!

As to how many times I get up and go . . . well, it's been once a night - but wait, over the past two weeks, that's increased, seems like. I know there have been nights I've gotten up at least twice.

Geez, this is soooooo maddening. I really thought I was past all of this. But no, no, it's back with a vengeance. For example, I took my bicarb, went to the bathroom, then picked up my son from school. We then made a quick trip to Target. This is all a short drive from my house. I had to go, go, go when we got to Target. Matter of fact, I had to go when I picked up my son from school.

When things are like this for me, I really get depressed. I don't feel like doing anything. I don't feel like planning anything, etc.

I don't know how we're going to get through this, mydarling. The thing is - I, me, personally - am not willing to take HRT. I just am not going to do it. However, I do think I might start using a bioidentical progesterone cream. (Dr. Lee's book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause" is a good book, and I really think Dr. Lee knew what he was talking about.) That said, I really wish I didn't have to use anything. Some people have adverse reactions to progesterone, even in a cream. But, that might be because they've used too much, or their bodies just don't agree with it. I don't know, but I'm getting desperate over here. If the progesterone cream might help me, then I might try it - but I'll go by Dr. Lee's instructions, very carefully.

I hate all of this . . .

Hmmm . . . I don't know if I have that symptom. I might. I've been so upset about all of this, that sometimes I panic, and my panic takes over, and then I get nervous and shake - and then it's hard for me to tell what is what.

I don't think I've had that symptom . . . yet. ("Yet" is the key word there!) Oh, my husband just came home and said he had made an appointment with the urologist. I go next Thursday afternoon - a week from tomorrow. Now, can I hang on that long????? Is this just thinning skin down there, that is nothing serious???? Is this another UTI?????

I don't expect you to answer those questions, mydarling. LOL. But that's what I go through - all of the mental anguish that comes from the physical anguish.

Anyhow, what you might be feeling (the pressure thing that makes you feel like you need to push) could be just a nerve sensation that makes you think you need to push. Because the tissues are thinning down there, they're extra sensitive - so, your nerve endings are doing a number on you. Years ago, when I had my very first bout of acid reflux, I felt as if there was a tennis ball stuck in my esophagus! Honestly, it felt like something was in there. But what I was feeling was the dryness caused by the acid, and it all just made me feel as if something was there.

I'm going to need more bicarb, pretty soon. I've lost count of how much I've had today.

Hi ya'll:

I have a couple of vaginal problems that I have been too embarassed to ask anyone about but I cant help but wonder about.

I have a heaviness and achiness at the line just above my pubic hair line. When I have to go to the bathroom, I get an ache there. It comes and goes and is not intolerable but it is scary. I was wondering if anyone has this problem and if they know what it is or is it just menopause?

My second thing is I have air bubbles that come out of my vagina. It is quite embarassing especially when I am in public because I am afraid that someone will hear it and wonder what my problem is. Does anyone else experience this - or is it menopause?

Last but not least, I have the vaginal dryness that most of you experience but a couple days a month (no special time) I have a clear discharge that is disgusting to me. I have no other symptoms with this discharge. Just wondering the same thing, is it menopause?

Thank you for reading this and answering. Even though I have been having perimenopause symptoms for a while now, I seem to be having everything all at once now and the frequency is increasing. I panic about every new thing, thiniking this is going to kill me. The anxiety is overwhelming.

Jeaninne

P.S. to my post:

The pain I talked about when going to the bathroom is not a UTI. I have been checked repeatedly for those and this pain feels like muscle pain, no burning or other UTI symptoms.

Hi, stitchnanny! - Don't be embarrassed to ask about anything here. I've found out that most, if not all, of the symptoms of menopause are probably somewhere in these boards or articles. Besides, we're all going through heck with our symptoms, and some of the symptoms are weird.

The achiness at your public hair line, whenever you go to the bathroom, might just be a muscle thing. I think I've had episodes of that . . . well, I know I've had all sorts of weird aches in that area, and I always worry about aches there. So far, I've been okay. I've had four cesareans, though, so I've attributed some of my aches and weirdness to the fact that I've undergone major surgery there four times. My mother is convinced that I have "adhesions" there that sometimes pain me. Have you had a c-section, ever? Could the ache there possibly be the after-effects of a c-section? Are you exercising, maybe using muscles you haven't used for awhile? I'm thinking that even if you haven't had a c-section, and even if you don't exercise, it still sounds muscular to me. MOO (my opinion, only).

As to the air bubbles, I'm sure alot of people get those down there. Maybe Kegel exercises would help. Just a thought.

As to the discharge, well, watch it for awhile, and if it seems unusual to you, maybe have your doctor check you out. Even though things get drier down there for us, as we enter menopause and thereafter, we're still going to have some amount of moisture there, sometimes. If you don't have any other symptoms, and if you're feeling well, and if the discharge is not huge or terribly worrisome, just watch it for awhile and see what happens.

Thanks for sharing. As I said, we're all going through the wringer with our various symptoms. It helps to have a support group like this board.

dear jeaninne .........YES YES AND YES....to all of it!

Wow - it is a relief to realize that I am not alone with this and I can atribute it to something other my crazy brain cells Thanks for responding!

Jeaninne

Hi i'm also got those bubles coming out of my vagina. I'm feeling soo relieved i though was just me. But i really think that it can be my vaginal prolaps producing the bubles. Right now i'm with a lot of back pain, legs and feeling very miscerable. I'm working at a day care, in the infants room, and those babies are heavy , making my job too dificult to handle it , can't lift them cause my back get soo painful, and can feel my prolaps moving and i can't stant this feeling.
Causing on me pain all over my back, butt checks, legs, feet. So i'm feeling at the end of the rope.

menosick

Hi Ladies,

I also have the vaginal dryness & all the other weird stuff that goes along with it,,thank heavens i'm not alone!!

ooooohhhhh myyyyyy Goshhhhhhhhh.......I can't believe I found this.After 3 years of seeing specialists,nutritionists and numurous obgyns noone has confirmed that this symptom was from perimenopause!!! I've been through complete agony and fear and embarrassment over this. It started three years ago when all these other symptoms started.I would feel as though I needed to have an orgasm but couldn't because it was sooooo sensitive I couldn't. My clitoris would even swell up and be very red. It was strange but what seemed to help a little after trying everything else was inserting probiotics in my vagina. This went on and off for three years and reacently has subsided...not sure why because I still have all the other perimenopause stuff. I did have a huge cyst and part of my ovary removed . My clitoris was so oversensitive I could barely sit still....IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!There were times my clitoris would be sensitive then kinda stinged before it got better. and some dr's suggested I needed a therapist. I also had bladder issues like fullness in my bladder ,constantly having to go to the bathroom. I get this more around the time I ovulate.
Anybody else have this like me?

hi everyone .....

UGH! isn't this the pits?! HOLY COW! and to think, all these years, i thought the "change" was this sort of mood altering "thing" that would happen in my 50's sometime ....HA!!!!!

rifrost .... yes, i get it like you too! I can get that sensation ANY OLD TIME! it seems to come and go, i can't really track it, its to unpredictable. (just like all the other symptoms). Yeah, this one particular symptom, is probably the worst , at least for me. Because to feel, that you have to CONSTANTLY urinate, is hell! I mean, i have to constantly pull over if i'm driving, into some restaurant or whatever, to use the bathroom, only to find out, there was hardly anything! THE FRUSTRATION IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!

Right now, it's ok ....notice, i said RIGHT NOW...lol...see, those are the key words here.
because tomorrow, or later today, that may change again. It's the constant, relentless, changing from moment to moment that drives us nuts! It's to much to keep up with, and once you're done with one symptom, here comes another!


HUGS to everyone ... i know this is hard on us all!!!!