Vaginal blisters during period: causes and what to do

Author: Aunt Vadge
Qualified Naturopath | BHSc(N)

Last reviewed: July 6, 2026

Good evening,

I have been searching high and low for help or any information. To begin, I’ll apologise to whoever is reading this, as it may be a bit long or rambly at times. For that, I am truly sorry.

First I’ll be blunt: during my period I endure a joyous mix of troubles – blister-like wounds, fissures and others, on top of itching or pain. It can be pain from the boo boos, or if I have to pee it hurts when the urine touches any open sore.

As I kindly explained to my GP, ‘My vagina is a psycho. It has a mind of its own.’

I’m told I have endometriosis, and I have exploratory surgery coming up. I have ovarian cysts and a uterine polyp – that’s what’s known at this point. I don’t take birth control in any form: no pills, no IUD, nada. Just good old condoms (which is a whole story in itself).

I do NOT have any STIs or infection – nothing has tested positive anywhere. I have a history of being sensitive and picking up spontaneous allergies (toilet paper!) – so probably a bit of contact dermatitis. I thought perhaps my tampons were the culprit, or dryness, but I don’t tend to struggle with dryness often.

I’ve stopped using tampons, pads, liners – anything from a box. I’m currently using washable organic cotton. The problems are still here, not as bad (the tampons were definitely an irritant), but still hanging around.

Help?!?!

Yours,
Blistered

Dear Blistered,

Don’t apologise for a word of it. Sores and fissures that turn up like clockwork with your period, that sting when you pee, are worth taking seriously – and the single most useful thing I can tell you is that a recurring, cyclical pattern like this needs someone to actually look at the skin while it’s flaring. Blisters and open sores can’t be sorted out from a letter, and a couple of the possible causes only show themselves on an in-person swab taken during an outbreak. So the honest answer to ‘what is it’ is: get it looked at when it’s active, not once it’s healed.

That’s the safety bit. Now the reassuring bit: most cases of vaginal blisters during period flares are benign and manageable once you know which cause you’re dealing with, and you’ve already done more of the detective work than most.

What you can do yourself, right now

You don’t need to wait for an appointment to make yourself more comfortable, and none of this costs much:

Keep going with the plain washable cotton – you’ve already proven the boxed products were an irritant, which is a genuinely useful clue.
Wash with plain warm water only. No soap, no wipes, no ‘feminine’ washes, nothing scented anywhere near the area.
When it stings to pee, pour a jug of warm water over yourself as you go, or pee in the shower – it dilutes the urine so it doesn’t bite the open skin.
A plain barrier ointment on the sore skin (something bland like pawpaw ointment) can take the edge off and stop urine and friction getting at it.
Keep a simple diary for a couple of months: when the sores appear against where you are in your period, what you’d eaten, worn or used. A clear cyclical link is gold for whoever ends up helping you.

What cyclical vulval sores can turn out to be

A few different things flare with the period, which is exactly why it needs an in-person look rather than a guess:

An allergic or irritant flare – your history of sensitivity and the tampon reaction fit this. This is where the contact dermatitis angle comes in, and it’s the one you can influence most yourself by stripping back everything that touches the skin.
Cyclic vulvovaginitis – recurring burning, itching and splitting that shows up at the same point in your period each month, often with a yeast sensitivity underneath it.
Non-sexually-transmitted vulval ulcers – there are several causes that have nothing to do with sex, including some immune-related ones.
Herpes still needs ruling out properly, even with a clean sheet of tests. Outbreaks are classically triggered by the period, and – this is the catch – a lot of standard STI panels don’t actually test for it, so a negative result doesn’t clear it unless HSV was specifically included. A swab of an active sore is the way to know. There’s more on that on our genital herpes page.

Your cysts, polyps and endometriosis sit alongside all this and point to a hormonal picture worth exploring – possibly a relative oestrogen excess. That’s the part where working with a naturopath and your GP together really earns its keep, treating the whole hormonal and immune picture rather than chasing each sore as it appears.

When to get seen sooner rather than later

Book an in-person look, ideally while a sore is active, if any of these apply:

The blisters or ulcers are new, changing, or spreading.
You’ve never had them swabbed during an actual outbreak.
There’s fever, feeling generally unwell, or swollen glands in your groin alongside the sores.
The pain is severe, or peeing becomes so painful you’re avoiding it or struggling to go at all.

If cost or getting to a clinic is the hard part, a sexual-health clinic will swab and test for far less than you’d expect (often free), they’ve seen every version of this before, and it stays private. Your upcoming surgery is also a good moment to hand your specialist that symptom diary and ask them to look at the vulval skin too, not just the pelvic organs.

When someone comes to us with this cyclical, immune-and-hormone-flavoured picture, our work is the root-cause side – supporting the hormonal balance and calming an over-reactive, easily-irritated system – rather than diagnosing the lesion itself, which belongs with the person who can examine it. If you’d like a hand with that side of things, you can book an appointment, and a comprehensive vaginal microbiome test can help sort out whether yeast or a disrupted microbiome is part of the flare.

You’ve clearly been fighting this on your own for a while, and you’ve already worked out more than most. Get the skin looked at while it’s cross, keep that diary, and you and your psycho vagina will get to the bottom of it.

Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge

This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice. Please see a qualified practitioner about your own situation, especially for blistering or ulcerating sores, which need to be examined in person.

Frequently asked questions

Why do I get vaginal blisters during my period?

Sores and blisters that flare with your period can come from an irritant or allergic reaction, cyclic vulvovaginitis, a non-sexually-transmitted ulcer condition, or a herpes outbreak triggered by menstruation. Because a few of these look similar, the only reliable way to tell them apart is to have the skin examined and swabbed while a sore is actually there.

Can it be herpes if all my STI tests were negative?

Possibly, yes. Many routine STI panels don’t include herpes unless it’s specifically requested, so a negative result doesn’t rule it out on its own. The most dependable test is a swab taken directly from an active sore. If you’ve never had an outbreak swabbed, it’s worth asking for that.

Are the sores connected to my endometriosis and cysts?

Not directly, but they can share a background. Endometriosis, ovarian cysts and polyps point to a hormonal picture, and hormones plus an over-reactive immune system can also make vulval skin more prone to flaring. Treating that whole picture – rather than each sore in isolation – is usually more useful than tackling them separately.