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Hi Aunt Vadge,
I had a group B strep (GBS) vaginitis infection, and a year later it’s back. It’s absolutely terrible. I’m on amoxicillin – three days in, with some relief, but still itching and burning. My pH was 7, which is very high. I’ve four more days of antibiotics left, but I’m so worried it’ll linger.
I’m also trying to get my doctor to put my husband on penicillin. Can you help?
Yours,
Suffering
Hi Suffering,
I’m sorry – recurrent GBS vaginitis is properly miserable. The hopeful part is it’s treatable, and the fact it keeps coming back usually means there’s an underlying reason worth finding rather than just bad luck.
First things first: finish your antibiotic course as prescribed, even if things improve before the end – don’t stop early. Group B strep is a common bacterium that lives harmlessly in lots of people, but in some it overgrows and irritates, and a high pH like your 7 fits that picture. It’s not a reflection of hygiene or anything you did wrong.
Recurrent infections like this are our bread and butter. And the most useful thing we’ve learned is that the answer often isn’t in the vagina at all – there’s usually a systemic or underlying driver keeping it coming back, which is where a broader assessment earns its keep.
One natural option with evidence is garlic: there’s a small but striking case series where freshly cut garlic resolved eight long-standing GBS cases – not a magic bullet, but low-cost and worth knowing about – with one caveat, since you’ve already got burning, that garlic can sting or irritate, so if it stings at all take it out and stop, and never use it on raw or broken skin.
A handy quirk of GBS is that, unlike many disruptive bacteria, it doesn’t feed on lactulose, so some of the usual cautions around lactulose-based approaches don’t apply to it. Either way, the goal is to rebuild your protective vaginal flora and make the environment inhospitable to the strep.
Your instinct to involve your husband makes sense, since GBS can be passed back and forth – the evidence for routinely treating partners isn’t strong, but for a recurrent case like yours it’s reasonable to raise with your doctor.
One important note: if you’re pregnant or planning to be, make sure your maternity team knows you carry GBS, because it changes how they manage your birth to protect the baby.
And if you’re still struggling in three to four weeks, or it returns, that’s the moment to dig into the why – recurrent, problematic GBS vaginitis often has underlying factors that have little to do with your vagina itself, which is exactly what our specialist naturopaths assess, with a comprehensive vaginal microbiome test to map what’s really going on, and you can book an appointment to work out how to stop the cycle.
Hang in there – this is workable, and you don’t have to keep going in circles.
Warm regards,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information based on current research and our clinical experience, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
