BV, STD, or something else?

Hi guys,

For quite sometime I have experienced a musty odor, it’s always been extremely strong from my clitoris. I don't really recall ever having the odor come from my actual vagina, but i wouldn't say the odor from there is normal all the time.

I have also experienced all types of discharges over the years:

Clear, clear and watery, clear and sticky. Have experienced all of those before with no odor, with fishy odor, and with musty odor.

White, white and watery, white and sticky, have experienced all of these at times with no odor, with fishy odor, and with musty odor.

Faint yellow, I only notice this dried on my underwear or a pad liner. But this is almost always accompanied with a musty odor.

Pink to Brown - I have experienced this at completely random times of the month, but most recently this happened a week after my last period and lasted for days. There was no odor.

Unfortunately, I think I have been suffering with BV or something else for years. This all became noticeable to me as a young teen, and I think due to lack of knowledge being so young, I didn’t really understand that maybe it’s not normal. I also thought it could just be my natural scent. They always tell you “vaginas have odors and they’re not going to smell like roses” and usually they only focus on “if it smells like fish, there’s a problem” but they don’t really tell you anything else. For years I just thought the scent could be passed off as maybe a scent from sweating all day or just needing a shower, but I started to realize something wasn’t right when I would shower and it would come back. I was so irritated by the smell never going away, and again being young, I had no idea you’re not supposed to wash the inside of your vagina - I was doing that for many years. Which I assume definitely threw off my PH balance.

I lost my virginity at 17, and I am still with the same man 11 years later. When I first started having sex, it was extremely painful and not enjoyable. He is very well endowed but, I knew something else wasn’t right. I would sometimes bleed heavy for days afterwards. There were never any fishy odors then, mainly just issues with spotting or bleeding afterwards. I do know that there was a musty odor present then though.

Within the last year is when I started noticing fishy odors and having real life hindering problems. This also happened at the same time my boyfriend and I were switching condom brands. My doctors have always suspected I have a latex allergy and I was told to avoid latex. But, because I never exhibited any signs of an allergic reaction from them that I knew of, I used them for years. My boyfriend and I had been trying out different brands, and I think this was when I got my first round of BV.

We had sex on my period, using a condom, and once my period was gone - watery, nasty, putrid, and fishy discharge! I googled and immediately BV came up - I had NEVER heard of this before. I researched it for 2 days and ordered BV gel off of amazon, did the treatment as directed and it seemed to clear up in a week. I didn’t have any issues for a while. But then, I started getting UTI’s back to back and it was always directly after sex. I was then put on antibiotics back to back.

I didn’t want to have sex, or do anything because it just felt like any move I made down there some type of infection was going to arise. So I abstained from sex for a while. My boyfriend and I talked about it and thought maybe an irritation from condoms was causing all of this, we decided to do away with them completely. I also started taking cranberry vitamins to prevent UTI’s which seemed to work well. Sometimes, I would notice a very faint burning the next day after sex and think that maybe one was coming on, but I never actually experienced another one. It scared me enough to start looking for a better product so I ordered VH essentials women’s probiotic, which is supposed to prevent BV, UTIS, yeast infections, etc. I took those for about 10 days on and off, saw good results, and then got lazy.

And what do you know, musty odor was back! I didn’t have any other symptoms besides musty odor and regular discharge so I continued on with life. The next time I saw BV was after my next period. It was very mild, I noticed the fish odor during sex but after that, I did not see any nasty water putrid discharge. The fish odor was enough to make me start taking those probiotics faithfully until I could order a treatment again. The discharge was clear with a faint fish smell for about 2 days, I think the probiotic took care of the fish odor. Following this, it turned to yellow discharge with musty smell, and then to brown. The brown discharge came about a week after my period and lasted for days. I then got my gel in the mail. This time I ordered multi gyn gel because I heard so many good things about it. It tells you to use a fingertip amount inserted into vagina 2 times a day for 5 days. The fourth day I was feeling pretty depressed because while the odor inside my vagina had been gone for days, there was still a faint musty fishy odor around my clitoris. I also couldn’t stop urinating that day (I do drink a lot of sugary drinks during the day - not good I know) and I was also really itchy. I also read a few reviews that some women felt even worse when using this. Not only that, I am extremely sensitive to a lot of topical things, I have serious contact dermatitis issues with certain things and I wasn’t sure if I was doing more harm than good. I also had a very long drive and a meeting the next day and I didn’t want to be dealing with that. Once all that was done with and I knew I was going to be home to deal with whatever irritants from this - I used gel again. This time the odor around my clitoris went away, also no odor from inside either. Brown discharge went away and was back to clear discharge every now and then with no odor! Still experienced some itching, it’s usually on the clitoris or right below the clitoris in between a fold. I also ordered PH testing strips and have been testing my PH since I’ve been treating this over the last week. It has been coming up between 3.5 and 4.5. I haven’t had sex with my boyfriend in a while so I figured since everything felt better then ever to give it a go. And wow, NO PAIN DURING SEX! This was something I’ve never experienced before!!! He was surprised and could notice a huge difference because I wasn’t wincing in pain for once. This might not be related but following sex I had a pain on my left ovary area I had to sit down for a minute because it was pretty painful. I think it was from the positions we tried that we usually can’t do because of the pain I would experience before. A few minutes later it completely subsided. I peed immediately after sex, washed up, only the clitoris area and external parts. (I used summers eve wash which now wondering everyone’s opinions - maybe this isn’t the best wash to use?) I also put the gel around the clitoris area and inside vagina. Noticed the odor was still gone on my clitoris the next day, BUT now I have this mild funky putrid musty smell coming from vagina. I can’t win!!! I have mild itching here and there, and sometimes clear discharge without odor. I’m expecting my period any day now, and have mild cramps but nothing.

My boyfriend and I have been really trying to figure this out. There was a brief 6 month period in 2013 where we went our separate ways. He recently admitted to having unprotected sex with a few other girls during this time, but was tested some time around then. He tells me his test was negative. I talked to him about me needing to be tested and he fully supports that but says I shouldn’t have anything since he was negative. I have only ever had unprotected sex with him, and that started this past year. I’m just worried I’ve had something for years that hasn’t been treated. He told me that the doctor there gave him an antibiotic to take in the event that he did have something, that way it would knock anything out that he may have, while waiting for the test results to come back. A part of this seems sketchy to me, like maybe he did have something and was treated for it but switched the story up to make it seem like the doctors protocol was to give antibiotics beforehand to knock anything out just in case. Not sure how all that works, but we have agreed I should get tested just to be safe. I’ve googled STDS that maybe match the symptoms I have and I feel like one I could have would be Trich. I know this is long, but ladies you understand the anxiety and uncertainty. I have stayed away from doctors for too long because they just want to prescribe antibiotics that mess me up, I know I need to go. But I wanted to hear thoughts on what you guys think it could be? BV or STD, maybe something else completely? I’m wondering if STDS would affect PH balance or seem like they are getting better with the treatment I used. I would think anything you do it wouldn’t help if it were an STD that’s why I’m thinking more that it’s BV. I’ll update when I get tested. Any thoughts though??

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