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Hi Aunt Vadge,
I have been battling recurring BV (Gardnerella vaginalis) for months! I’ve been through several rounds of metronidazole gel, the metronidazole pill and other antibiotics to try to clear it up.
Without fail, as soon as I stopped the medicine the problem came back – irritation, discharge, smell. I even had my IUD taken out after reading about biofilm and how it can be a safe harbour for bacteria. When that didn’t fully fix things, I did more of my own research and started using boric acid suppositories and probiotics.
Again, as long as I’m using something the symptoms start to settle. The irritation and discharge are still there 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
Dear Fed Up,
You have the classic picture of recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV) – hard to shift, but not impossible. The reason it keeps coming back is the biofilm, and the antibiotics aren’t dissolving it. They knock out the free-floating (planktonic) bacteria, so things improve for a while, but the biofilm stays stuck to your vaginal cells and repopulates the moment you stop.
Removing your IUD on its own was never going to solve it. Biofilm gets everywhere across the vaginal wall, and it’s notoriously tough to break down with standard treatments. With the right ingredients, though, it’s very doable.
You haven’t ‘overdone’ the probiotics – they’re just not strong enough to dismantle a biofilm on their own. It’s a good sign they make a dent in your symptoms, but your vagina needs more than that. Rounds of antibiotics also tend to knock back your protective bacteria, so your microbiome is probably not in great shape right now, and that needs rebuilding too.
The boric acid suppositories are a reasonable thing to have reached for – plenty of women use them as part of a BV plan. Just two safety notes: boric acid is only ever used vaginally, never swallowed (it’s toxic taken by mouth), and it’s not used in pregnancy.
Find out exactly what you’re dealing with
After months of this, it’s worth getting a comprehensive vaginal microbiome test so you can see precisely what’s overgrowing and what’s been depleted. It confirms it really is BV rather than something masquerading as it, and it can flag species that hide out in the gut and keep reseeding the vagina – a common reason BV won’t quit.
Don’t forget your partner
Recurrent BV is sometimes a reinfection loop with a partner. If you have a male partner, the same organisms can live on and under the foreskin and pass back and forth, so treating you alone can leave a back door open. Our Killing BV approach has a dedicated penis version for exactly this situation.
Where to from here
You need a dedicated plan that targets the biofilm and rebuilds your protective bacteria at the same time. One of the things we do very well here at My Vagina is BV – we see recurrent cases like yours constantly in the clinic, and we’ve put everything we know into our Killing BV treatment plan. It walks you through what’s really going on so the treatment actually makes sense, rather than you chasing symptoms round in circles.
If you’d rather start with free information, our how to treat BV guide and the Bacterial Vaginosis page both cover biofilms and what BV really is in depth. And if you’d like a plan built around your own test results, you’re welcome to book an appointment with us.
You’re closer than you think – you just need the biofilm handled properly.
Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
