Chronic Vaginal E Coli infections

Any updates? (Since taking iron and Vitamin D?)

Hi Pammy.

I don't really have an answer....

How do you know that you have vaginal ecoli and not BV?

For some women BV ends up being caused by an estrogen deficiency.... others it makes no difference. I'll be honest, no doctors really know what causes BV and the cause seems to be different for every woman. So it's a matter of trying and seeing what works for you.

Because I don't have an odor and it's yellow discharge and my cultures came back as no anaerobes but with e. Coli

Pammy have you tried testing your PH?

You can purchase PH strips from ebay for like 1 dollar...

what have you tried so far? Any home remedies? Would your discharge change when you'd try the home remedies?

 

I have tried flag to, clindamycin, cipro, and for home remedies, I have tried boric acid, yogurt suppositories, and oral probiotics. Only thing that makes discharge better are probiotics. But it doesn't get rid of it and I don't want to take probiotics forever.

Hi Pammyj87,

 I personally do not experience pelvic pain/inflamation with mine. My discharge is typically clear but has a funky smell. (Starts off smelling kind of pee-like/amonia and then gets worse if left untreated. I use a ton of probiotics, boric acid suppositories for relief, etc, have changed my diet, but nothing has worked to keep it away. These things have helped treat it, but not cure.

if you have chronic cervicitis, you should get checked up for chronic endometritis, (not endometriosis). it is inflammation of uterus and since the cervix is opening of uterus, high chance that endometritis is causing the pelvic pain. if they can confirm it through biopsy, you will be given long term antibiotic to cure it. at 27 years you are unlikely to have estrogen deficiency.

Hi Pammy,

Wondering how you are getting on with e coli? I wonder if My situation is similar to yours, My hvs cultures came back with only a heavy growth of e coli.. no anaerobes, no white blood cells or clue cells no other pathogens the report said significance uncertain. I had the swab after my miscarriage as I wanted to make sure nothing was causing it. They said the E coli wasn't responsible and treated me with a course of cefuroxime for 7 days. I was told later that this heavy growth of ecoli they found may not have been an infection but a contaminant that may have been picked up at the time of swab? Although my gynae keeps referring to it as an ecoli infection so to be on the safe side I'm repeating the swab after a month of the original... my GP thinks otherwise, he thinks it wasn't. .. so I'm confused. In your case Have they been able to confirm that the ecoli they found is definitely what's causing your cervicitis?I was told that some times ecoli is picked up on swabs but ot doesn't mean that it's causing an infection and normal the vaginal flora will deal with it .

I hope it's sorted by now

Xx

I didn't investigate it at thoroughly as you. I spent months going to the doctor and she would just swab and look under the microscope, see that it was an infection and then prescribe antibiotics. It wasn't until months of this merry go round that I asked for a culture to be done and it came back e.coli. it still took sever all rounds of antibiotics and was gone for almost a year but now it's back. I thought it was a yeast infection but no...e.coli. she gave me a vaginal antibiotic and when I picked up the prescription I thought nope...this isn't going to work. That's when I reached out online and found this support thread. My most recent attempt is cutting out white sugar from my diet (I still eat breads, fruits, etc.), drinking kefir which is a mighty probiotic you can make yourself, inserting a boric acid suppository every night in my vagina to balance ph and then soaking a tampon in kefir and inserting it during the day. This is day two of this regiment I'm starting to have relief. I think the key is the boric acid. Go online and read the revues on amazon.

Clindamycin is great at causing yeast infections. First get a cervical culture, and sensitivity - this will show what bacteria is causing the problem and what it is sensitive to. Second get the right antibiotic and take it for at least 10 days. Stubborn infections can take a longer course.

Fluconazole 150 mg on day one, three, and six, for stubborn yeast infections. - itching vagina with thick yellow or white chunky discharge

Metronidazole - 500 mg three times a day for 10 days for C. diff infection, for bacterial vaginosis: thin yellowish discharge, sometimes fishy odor, pain with intercourse, pelvice pain, sometimes causes irregular menstrual bleeding

Bactrim, or  Cipro - typical for most e.coli infections

Hi

i read with interest your mention of vaginal e-coli and boric acid pessaries.

Some women use this for thrush, and so i am a bit confused as the vagina needs 2 diff Ph environments if thrush or bacteris(e.coli) ? am i missing something.... i am resisting antibiotics. Treating myself for e-coli UTI, but am a bit stumped for the vaginal e-coli other than probiotics, good foods (cannot do dairy)

Any feedback would be very much appreciated re the pessaries

thank you

I'm still struggling with it myself. I'd recommend getting your hormone levels checked to start with. And cutting out sugar and wheat from your diet, eating lean meats, tons of greens, low sugar fruit, eggs, etc for a few weeks and see if it helps your symptoms. It helped mine.

Thanks for the responses. I will do the hormone levels for sure. Who checks those? An endocrinologist? I'll also give the whole 'eating healthy' a try! Haha

My Ob/Gyn does for me. The healthy eating was huge for me...saw the most symptom relief from that! SUPER low sugar, nothing processed, very limited dairy, lots of greens and veggies, protein, eggs, hormone-free chicken, beef, etc.

sc rmartinnc