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Hi there Aunt Vadge,
I’ve always had these tiny cuts around the lips of my vagina and the entrance. I recently had sex again – we used a condom the first time, but the second time we didn’t. He pulled out, and I’m on the Depo shot.
That was late July. It’s now August 9th, and over the past 3 or 4 days I’ve had minor bleeding, which I assumed was from these cuts, though they’ve never bled before.
Now I’m discharging a lot. I don’t get periods on Depo, but this is a slimy, clumpy discharge that’s yellow-white, sometimes more yellow. I’ve also been on an antibiotic for a double ear infection for about 2 weeks. I haven’t shaved, so the cuts aren’t from that. It’s lightened up a bit, but not much.
My boyfriend, now ex, came inside me. Could it be a miscarriage aftermath?
Yours,
Clumpy, Alaska, USA
Hey Clumpy,
You do have a fair bit going on, so let’s sort it into the bits that matter.
First, the reassuring one: you’re very unlikely to be miscarrying. Depo is one of the most effective contraceptives there is, so pregnancy is improbable even with the one unprotected time. If you want to lay the worry to rest completely, a cheap home pregnancy test will do it, but I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
Now the discharge, which is the part I’d act on. A heavy, slimy, clumpy, yellow discharge – especially with a bit of bleeding – after unprotected sex is exactly the pattern that warrants an STI check. Chlamydia and gonorrhoea often show up as yellow discharge, irritation of the cervix, and light bleeding or bleeding after sex, and they’re easy to miss because they can be quiet otherwise. Please book an STI screen at a sexual health clinic. They’re used to precisely this, they’re confidential, and in many places they’re free, so cost and privacy needn’t stop you. This is the single most useful thing you can do right now.
Two weeks of antibiotics for your ear infection will also have knocked down your protective bacteria, which very commonly tips into a yeast infection, and yellow discharge can also point to aerobic vaginitis. A swab or a comprehensive vaginal microbiome test will tell yeast, AV and an STI apart, so you treat the right thing rather than guessing.
On the tiny cuts and the light bleeding: two things worth knowing. Depo lowers your oestrogen, and lower oestrogen can leave the vulval and vaginal skin drier and more fragile, so it splits and stings more easily – that may well be behind your long-running little cuts. And spotting or breakthrough bleeding on Depo is very common in its own right, so some of the recent bleeding could simply be that rather than the cuts. If those cuts keep recurring, it’s worth a doctor looking at them in person too, as recurrent splits sometimes have a treatable skin cause.
While you sort out the testing, plenty of fermented foods (or a good probiotic) will help rebuild your protective bacteria after the antibiotics, warm water only on the vulva (no soap), and a plain emollient can soothe the fragile skin. But testing comes first – don’t self-treat a yellow discharge blind.
This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
Get that check, and write back with whatever they find.
Love,
Aunt Vadge
