Aunt Vadge: my BV won’t go away

Hi Aunt Vadge, 

I have been battling recurring BV (Gardenerella vagnialis) for months! Went on several rounds of metro gel, metro pill and antibiotic to try and clear up.

Without fail, when I would quit the medicine, issue would return; irritation, discharge, smell. I even had my IUD taken out after reading about biofilm and how it is a safe harbor… decided to do my own research further when this failed to rectify the problem completely, and started using boric acid suppositories and probiotics.

Again, as long as using something symptoms start to go away. Irritation and discharge are still present but different now. I’m wondering if I’m overdoing the probiotics… How do I just balance out at this point? So over it!!

Yours truly,
Fed Up
Age: 37
Country: US
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Dear Fed Up,

You have the typical presentation of recurrent BV, which is hard to get rid of, but not impossible, since the biofilm is not being destroyed by the antibiotics or probiotics. The antibiotics are just killing the planktonic bacteria. You need a dedicated treatment program to get rid of the biofilm, because just getting rid of your IUD won’t solve the problem – that stuff gets everywhere (all over your vaginal cells), and is notoriously hard to break down with typical treatments, but with the right ingredients, definitely doable.

You have not ‘overdone’ the probiotics, but they are not strong enough to kill off the biofilm alone. It’s good that they make a dent in your symptoms, but your vagina needs more. A lot of antibiotics also kills off your good bacteria, so your vagina is probably not in great microbial shape right now. This needs to change.

One of the things we do very well here at My Vagina is BV – we’ve written swathes of information on it, which we put into a lovely little book called Killing BV. I suggest you buy it – not because I don’t want to tell you what to do, but because it really explains what your problem is in detail, so you understand the treatment plan we provide – it’s important that you understand the true nature of the problem before you start your treatment, otherwise you’ll find yourself in the frustrating cycle of thinking you’ve solved the problem, but then it just comes back.

We also provide free email support, plus access to exclusive BV content in our support section. Check out the Bacterial Vaginosis page – there is a lot of information there as well on the nature of biofilms and what BV really is.

Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge