Constant discharge but tests normal: why, and what to do

Author: Aunt Vadge
Qualified Naturopath | BHSc(N)

Last reviewed: July 4, 2026

Hi there Aunt Vadge,

I had some vaginal infection in 2020 (not cultured during COVID), which responded somewhat to Diflucan. I was extended-breastfeeding at the time, and was also diagnosed with Lyme and Bartonella the same week. I had ongoing pelvic pain and discharge through 2022, was diagnosed with BV (recurred monthly, treated with metrogel, flagyl, vaginal clindamycin), and finally cleared it with Fluomizin.

Since then I’ve had constant white/clear discharge — no itch, no smell, but so constant I change my underwear 3–4 times a day. STD and gyn cultures are all normal. My last vaginal microbiome test showed 98% Lactobacillus crispatus.

I just did three days of Fluomizin again, had a brown discharge that looked like old blood and passed a clot, and now I’m flaring with pelvic burning, worse in the morning. I’m on Yaz for PCOS. What do I do next?

Help!
Baffled
Age 39, USA

Hi Baffled,

The most important thing, and it may surprise you: your microbiome is excellent. 98% Lactobacillus crispatus is the gold standard — the healthiest, most protective result you can get.

That changes everything, because it means your constant discharge almost certainly isn’t an infection. And that’s the key: treating a healthy vagina with an antimicrobial like Fluomizin is the wrong move, knocking down your protective bacteria for no good reason, which is very likely why this latest round left you flaring with brown discharge and burning.

So step one is to stop reaching for antimicrobials — your vagina isn’t the problem here.

So what’s the discharge? Constant clear or white discharge with no itch and no smell, on a healthy microbiome, is usually physiological or hormonal rather than infective.

A big possibility, given you’re on the combined pill (Yaz), is that the extra oestrogen produces more discharge and commonly causes cervical ectropion — soft, mucus-making cells sitting on the cervix that produce copious watery discharge — which is benign. And a quick speculum look can confirm it.

Your pH reading of 5 doesn’t fit a 98%-crispatus microbiome. So either the strip was off or the recent Fluomizin temporarily shifted things, which is another reason to let your microbiome recover rather than treat it again.

The bigger picture matters too. And it all connects: extended breastfeeding (low oestrogen), big immune events like Lyme and Bartonella (which can themselves affect vulvovaginal tissue), the antibiotics for Bartonella (which disrupt the gut microbiome), and PCOS managed with the pill.

Because you’re on the pill it’s hard to read what your own hormones are doing, and the pelvic burning may be irritation rather than infection. This is exactly the kind of layered case that needs a careful, connected eye rather than another treatment guess — untangling hormones, gut, immune history and a healthy-but-symptomatic vagina is what we do.

So I’d stop the antimicrobials and let your excellent microbiome settle, ask a doctor for a speculum check for cervical ectropion given the pill and the watery discharge, and for the whole picture book in with one of our practitioners.

The reassuring headline: the result everyone’s been chasing — a protective microbiome — you already have, so now it’s about working out the hormonal and physical drivers, gently.

Best,
Aunt Vadge

This is general information based on current research and our clinical experience, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.