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Dear Aunt Vadge,
I’m 26 weeks pregnant and really struggling with BV, UTIs and yeast — constant burning, stinging, discharge, redness, and urinary frequency and urgency. I’m in so much pain I can barely walk, and I’m completely exhausted (I was even before pregnancy).
I hardly sleep, and I’m constantly anxious and stressed. I’ve tried many treatments — herbal pessaries, milk kefir, probiotics, boric acid, and oral and vaginal antibiotics over and over. The only thing that helped a little was Balance Activ gel. My vaginal pH is 5.
I have some digestive problems (bloating, gas), and before pregnancy I had PMS, irregular cycles and short, clotty periods.
Warm regards,
Deeply Suffering
Age 35, UK
Hi there Deeply Suffering,
First and most important: being in so much pain you can barely walk, with urinary urgency and frequency, at 26 weeks pregnant, is a please-get-seen-promptly situation.
I suspect you’re already in the system, but please don’t tough this out at home — pain like that, plus urinary symptoms, needs your midwife, GP or obstetrician to check for a urinary infection taking hold, because these can climb to the kidneys and cause problems in pregnancy.
Get seen soon. And one quick but important thing: please don’t use boric acid while you’re pregnant, because it isn’t considered safe in pregnancy — as a rule, cross off anything your maternity team hasn’t okayed.
It really does sound like something bigger is driving this than a single infection. Your pH of 5 is on the high side, and an L. iners-dominant microbiome (which often explains ‘clear’ swab results) isn’t very protective, so it lets things in.
But the exhaustion (even before pregnancy), the broken sleep, the anxiety and the digestive issues all point the same way too: you may be running low on key nutrients and not absorbing what you eat as well as you should.
Things worth a proper look with your provider include iron, B12, folate, zinc and thyroid — and not just standard serum tests, which can miss a functional deficiency — because low B12 alone can drive both exhaustion and anxiety, and correcting it can shift things quickly, while struggling digestion can mean you’re eating well but absorbing poorly, which quietly feeds all of this.
The fact that Balance Activ helped fits the picture, since gently acidifying the vaginal environment supports your protective bacteria — so ask your maternity team which acidifying or probiotic options are right for you in pregnancy, and a pregnancy-safe probiotic plus fermented foods that are fine in pregnancy can help support things alongside.
This exact combination — recurrent vaginal infections alongside low energy and digestive trouble — is a familiar one, and the turning point is usually addressing the nutrient and gut picture underneath rather than just treating each flare; in pregnancy that’s done hand-in-hand with your maternity team, and a practitioner can help you work it through.
It’s worth taking seriously, because BV and UTIs in pregnancy aren’t just uncomfortable, they carry real risks, which is exactly why prompt, pregnancy-safe management matters. You’re carrying a huge amount right now, and doing it while this unwell — be kind to yourself, lean on your team, and please get that pain reviewed soon.
Best,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information based on current research and our clinical experience, not a substitute for personalised medical advice. In pregnancy, please cross-check any treatment with your maternity team first.
