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Dear Aunt Vadge,
I have cycled between yeast and BV, and sometimes have both, for over a year. I have tried a 3-month candida supplement course, tea tree oil, all the doctor’s scripts, boric acid, and probiotics specifically to help. I have come back with a positive on my Pap smear. I want to cry. I do not know what to do.
Sincerely,
Miserable
Age 21, Oregon USA
Hi there Miserable,
First, take a breath – both of these things are far more common and more manageable than they feel right now.
The yeast-and-BV see-saw is a known pattern with known causes, and it can be sorted; and a positive Pap is something a great many people get at some point, usually settling on its own, with the most important thing being simply to follow up with your doctor as they advise.
You’re not in trouble, and you’re not alone.
Take the two things in turn. Cycling between yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis usually means there’s an imbalance in your vaginal microbiome that hasn’t been addressed yet: when you treat one, the treatment can shift the environment in a way that favours the other. So you ping-pong between them – especially common after antibiotics, where it’s known as a post-antibiotic yeast infection.
The treatments you’ve tried all have their place, but on their own they may not be reaching the underlying reason the balance keeps tipping, and that’s the bit worth chasing.
When we work through this yeast–BV see-saw with someone, the thing that matters is the underlying driver keeping it going; once that’s found and addressed, the cycling tends to settle rather than just pausing until the next flare. A good place to start is our free Killing BV treatment guide, which walks through how your vaginal microbiome works and how to break the cycle.
About your positive Pap and HPV: a positive result usually means HPV (human papillomavirus) has caused some cell changes on your cervix, and HPV is extremely common – most sexually active people will have it at some point, and in the large majority it clears on its own without ever causing a problem.
One thing that surprises people is that HPV doesn’t need the fluid exchange many classic STIs do; it passes by skin-to-skin contact, and because it’s a hardy virus, non-sexual spread (a shared damp towel, say) is thought to be possible too, although genital skin-to-skin contact is by far the main route.
Your result being picked up now, young, is actually the system working as intended – it doesn’t mean you’ll get cancer, it means a risk has been flagged early so it can be watched and managed – and the single most important next step is to follow your doctor’s advice on follow-up (a repeat test, or a closer look called a colposcopy).
Please don’t skip those appointments, because that follow-up is what keeps an abnormal result from ever becoming something serious.
Here’s where the two problems tie together: the same kind of microbiome imbalance behind BV – protective Lactobacillus crowded out by disruptive bacteria – is also linked to HPV lingering rather than clearing. And a Lactobacillus crispatus-dominant microbiome is associated with better HPV clearance, while a BV-type community is associated with HPV persisting and with more cervical cell changes.
So settling your yeast-and-BV cycling and supporting your body against HPV pull in the same direction.
There’s also early trial evidence that targeted natural support can help: in a small randomised trial, a mushroom-derived immune-support compound (AHCC) helped a majority of women clear persistent high-risk HPV compared with placebo – promising, though still early and best done under supervision – and in our clinical experience this kind of immune and microbiome support really does help.
Two honest caveats: none of it replaces your screening follow-up (keep those appointments no matter what), and it’s not a one-size-fits-all fix off a shelf, so the right approach is individual and best done with a practitioner, which you can do by booking an appointment.
Your medical follow-up looks after the cervix; a practitioner helps your body do what it’s already trying to do. You’ll be okay. Truly. This is a lot to land in one go, but both are common, well-understood and very much manageable.
Lots of love,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information based on current research and our clinical experience, not a substitute for personalised medical advice. Please follow your own doctor’s guidance on Pap follow-up.
