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Chronic Vaginal E Coli infections

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MarieGermany
MarieGermany

Hi everyone,

 So the last few times I was treated for BV (in the summer of 2014), it turns out once the cultures came back, that I had E Coli and not Gardnerella. It is chronic and goes away with antiboitoics, but comes back right away a few days after the antibiotics are through, especially after a period. I am taking 50 Billion probiotics, using apple cider vinegar down there to restore pH, etc. I have no new sex partners, have been married for 10 years, and he was tested and does not have E Coli. Has anyone strugged with E Coli infections? My doctor says that E Coli is another bacteria that is present everywhre, and when your pH in the vagina is off, it cannot fight off the normal bacteria and they flourish. All of my bloodwork has come back fine, except I just found out I have the beginning stages of cervical cancer. The doctor thinks this is all related, but I wanted to see if anyone else had experienced this. It's miserable and I'm tired of having infections. If you have any insight or experience to share, please do! Thank you! smile

0 likes, 143 replies

143 Replies

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  • Guest
    Guest MarieGermany

    Posted

    Hi, just got found this discussion while researching for a friend with BV.  She has extreme burning in the vaginal area.  No rash, pustules, or anything else.  Just the burning.  Is this common?  She's post menopausal and not sexually active.  Initially, she was treated for candida and the docs tried a range of meds on her with little to no success.  Recently, a culture was done which confirmed e-coli infection in the vagina.  So now she's on a course of antibiotics and probiotics and I'm hoping this new treatment will work.  However, thought I would do a bit of research into this problem and found a medical site that explained the natural cleansing system of the vagina which is coated with beneficial lactobacilii.  It seems that lactobacilii are not created equal.  Some secrete this, some that.  But there's a group of them that secrete a form of hydrogen peroxide.  Yes, that stuff that was used on our small cuts and scrapes when we were children.  It's this stuff that keeps the vagina free of infection.  Sometimes, though, if the body is a run down and the immune system not up to par, a bacteria will break thru the vaginal defence system and take over the territory.  One such is e-coli which is usually perferctly harmless in the gut or on the skin,  but is really nasty if it gets into our urinary tracts and vaginas.  Strong, usually 3rd line antibiotics taken for 10 - 14 days along with D-mannose, cranberry and hisbiscus extracts can get rid of a stubborn ecoli UTI but is this treatment effective in the vagina? And how would one get D-mannose into the vagina?  It enters the bladder naturally, thru the urinary system and surrounds whatever bacteria is sticking to the bladder walls, from where the whole lot gets flushed out by urine.  To flush out e-coli from the vagina, some professionals suggest a hydrogen peroxide douche.  Anecdotal evidence shows that this can work in 2 days.  Just fill a cup with hydrogen peroxide which is used to treat wounds and using a turkey baster (new, naturally!), draw it up into the baster and syringe it slowly into the vagina so it gets a chance to act on the bacteria.  Seems radical but makes sense since hyd peroxide is naturally in the vagina.  Would definitely suggest you ask your doctor first, though.  Good luck!
  • Guest
    Guest MarieGermany

    Posted

    A word of caution regarding the hydrogen peroxide douche mentioned in my previous post:  research has also shown that an overgrowth of the hydrogen-peroxide producing lacto-bacilii can cause the same stinging and burning symptoms produced by e-coli !  So would suggest getting a culture done of the vagina to confirm e-coli infection before trying the hydrogen peroxide douche.  And this would need to have your doctor's approval or it could make things worse.  
    • momma_jay
      momma_jay Guest

      Posted

      Hi renewal, So what your saying to me is the use of a 3rd line antibiotic used for 10 - 14 days and the use of d-mannose, cranberry and hisbiscus extracts will help me get rid of this e-coli UTI that i'm experiencing?

       

    • jillybean1
      jillybean1 Guest

      Posted

      If you have stinging and burning when you have your so called infections, you may well have interstitial cystitis, which is one of the most misdiagnosed urinary tract things out there...good luck!
    • jillybean1
      jillybean1 Guest

      Posted

      Plain old white distilled vinegar and water douche is much more beneficial and will help restore alkalinity.  I would never, ever put hydrogen peroxide up there!!!
  • ania58353
    ania58353 MarieGermany

    Posted

    Hi Marie Germany I been reading this post because I been dealing with the same problem for 2 years and it's driving me crazy. I have wormed I have take almost every treatment for this and my body just wont respond, I dont even get cured and catch it back I just get worse with every antibiotic I take, now it has spread to my anus, the itch and the burn sensation is there almost all time. I have to use ointments to relieve the symptoms and to heal my skin cause if I stop using them my skin gets all red, swollen and even bleeds if I let it, I also have a little pimple (like a mosquito bite) and its really itchy.

    The baby ointment I use heal that, but it doesnt cure me.

    The last treatment I took was ceftriaxona 6 injections, they were very painful and they did nothing good for me

    I wanted to know if thats ok what are your exact symptoms, and what antibiotic you took and wich one seemed to work best, and also how are you doing

    • AnnaMarie73
      AnnaMarie73 ania58353

      Posted

      Hi Ania, this sounds exactly like MRSA. Did you get full bacterial cultures done? Did you finally find out what it was? 
  • ania58353
    ania58353 MarieGermany

    Posted

    Hi Marie Germany I been reading this post because I been dealing with the same problem for 2 years and it's driving me crazy. I have wormed I have take almost every treatment for this and my body just wont respond, I dont even get cured and catch it back I just get worse with every antibiotic I take, now it has spread to my anus, the itch and the burn sensation is there almost all time. I have to use ointments to relieve the symptoms and to heal my skin cause if I stop using them my skin gets all red, swollen and even bleeds if I let it, I also have a little pimple (like a mosquito bite) and its really itchy.

    The baby ointment I use heal that, but it doesnt cure me.

    The last treatment I took was ceftriaxona 6 injections, they were very painful and they did nothing good for me

    I wanted to know if thats ok what are your exact symptoms, and what antibiotic you took and wich one seemed to work best, and also how are you doing

    • tastas7
      tastas7 ania58353

      Posted

      Do you have e coli infection? What ointment helps you? I would suggest you to use anti fungal ointment while taking antibiotic. I had e coli infection, may be i still have but culture not picking up anything for last 1 year. Anyway, my ob/gyn treated me with both antibiotic and anti fungus cream. And the redness and itch mainly caused by yeast though she said it did not show in fungus culture. As home remeady, you can use oil of oregano diluted in coconut oil to kill e coli. I heard another doctor asked a patient to use betadine douche when antibiotic did not work. I used diluted betadine and it does not burn.. Hope you feel better soon. What ointment did you use?
    • pammyj87
      pammyj87 tastas7

      Posted

      Hi, I had vaginal E. coli for a year and a half and no antibiotics worked for me at all. My symptoms were yellow discharge with no odor and swelling by the cervix with pain during sex. Mine just went away in the last two weeks.

      I was taking the probiotic PB8 the whole time twice a day and it got rid of some of my symptoms. I just recently stopped probiotics completely and the next day, it was gone. I think the secret to this is stress management. I know that sounds dumb, but I think meditation or any other way to totally relax is the cure.

    • maggie0327
      maggie0327 pammyj87

      Posted

      Hi Pammy, I think I will have to agree with you, I have had vaginitis (both yeast and other types of BV i guess) for 2 years now, happening now at the same rate as my period and I have basically tried everything from exercise to probiotics to diet change, but I have been stressing too much about recovering. If i can really relax and just let it go, I think it may be the cure and the body will respond to it. What else have you tried? 
    • lns
      lns pammyj87

      Posted

      IMHO you are right about the stress factor (cortisol) and it is an easy thing to say that you want to eliminate it, but a harder thing to accomplish.  Took a long time to learn the simple "don't take things personally" that a mentor taught me.  Sometimes stressful situations are out of your control to some degree.  If you are serious about stress relief, Transcendental meditation will work, but it requires discipline. I only use it when things feel out of control.  Things like L-Theanine, Valerian, etc. can be used for temporary anxiety.

      However, it is my opinion you should not discount the use of probiotics. The probiotics you were taking probably wouldn't have done much to alleviate your problem.  I have been following the Microbiome Project and strains are very important.  The two that I take are specifically for these type of problems.  If you take them on an empty stomach the PH is too low for some to survive, if you take them with food the stomach acid will kill a lot.  Research points to taking them on an empty stomach with a small amount of fat (I use a tblsp or two of sour cream) for maximum survivability.  Please don't underestimate the "right" probiotics, however you get them.  Seres Theraputics trials has a patented strain that has a 97% success rate at eliminating C. Diff in hospitals, right now there are at least two groups I am aware of that are patenting a cocktail in the Clostridia family that should eliminate things like peanut allergies.  

      All that said, I think you are on the right track to eliminate stress however you go about it.  It seems to attack where you are weakest.  I spent much of my childhood in hospitals for this type of thing.  After my life was good, they went away for a very long time.  It took the death of my Father, my Mother losing it, feeling my Brother was taking advantage of my Mother and my Daughter going through a really bad time (all of which I had no control over) to get the infections again.  After 3 courses of antibiotics, which kills everything good and bad, I went with the research and tried the specific probiotics.  For me anyway, they work much better than the antibiotics.  No fevers, no back pain, no general malaise and rarely any cloudiness of urine.  

      Keep up the good work toward stress relief and don't get discouraged.  It is an easy thing to say, harder to do, but if you keep at it, it becomes the norm. 

    • ania58353
      ania58353 tastas7

      Posted

      First time I did a culture the result were enterococcus faecalis, I was prescribed with amoxicillin, the I did another culture and the result was e.coli, I be prescribed with cipro, trimethoprim, nitrofurantoin, levofloxacin and last one ceftriaxone and the ointment I use is called vitacilina bebe, that one has vitamins, a soft analgesic and it  doesnt have corticoid, thats why is safe to use as much as you need. I dont know if they sell it in your country but you can find it in amazon.

      Thank you very much for your advices I sure will try that, I started with the betadine yesterday, I hope that work, but I will buy the coconut oil and oregano oil also cause I'm done with antibiotics

    • ania58353
      ania58353 pammyj87

      Posted

      I'm glad that you got cured, that brings me hope. I am in fact stressed but is hard not to be with this bacteria messing up my body.

      I only have take probiotics in yogurt an for a short period of time (about 6 days or so) I use to think since Im young I dont need to take that kind of thing, that my body would produce them naturally but I now I think apparently I'm wrong I might need some help after all the medication I took, it just seem weird for me case is been a while since my last treatment and I still feel fatal.

      Thanks for sharing your experience

    • tastas7
      tastas7 ania58353

      Posted

      I live in USA and hope to get it in amazon. Hope you would find some relief with betadine or oregano oil. If you search with the term ' aerobic vaginitis' in google, you will see different studies indicated that such matter is resolved through local application of antibiotic than oral or injection form. It is because bad bacteria lives on the skin of vagina and antiobiotic taken in oral or injection form spreads though blood which can hardly reach, let alone kill bacteria living on skin. That is why when there is a cut or burn on skin, we use antibiotic ointment. In europe, they treat such vaginitis with antibiotic suppository but that concept do not seem to be present in usa!! E coli is an aerobic bacteria. If you use diluted betadine, u better use it with a tampoon and keep it there for 30 min. And also put probiotic capsule thar has lactobacilus at bedtime inside vagina. It would balance good bacteria which might get affected by betadine. Hope you feel well soon and please let me know if your culture comes negative after using all these. Try atleast for two weeks.
    • tastas7
      tastas7 pammyj87

      Posted

      Ya Pammy, i agree that stress has a big role to play to control symptoms. Hormones too. But in my case, this ecoli not only caused vaginitis, but also caused recurrent uti. E coli is the reason of 90% uti and it is very easy to travel to urethra from vagina. So i look for aggressive measure to kill it there as am terrified of uti. Another persistent problem is burning after urination ( not during) in urethra. A doctor suggested probiotic too and i am on it, just praying.

      Glad that you are cured.

    • whatever13
      whatever13 pammyj87

      Posted

      Hi Pammy,

      Glad to hear you have been cured. I have been having chronic cervicitis for almost a year now. The most recent culture shows e. coli ESBL infection. I have been on many different antibiotics but non of them seems to work. May I ask about your symptoms in detail to see if it could be the same thing as what I'm having?

      1. Apart from the color being yellow, was there any other abnormality in your discharge? e.g. Mine became very stringy and much stickier than usual

      2. Did you feel any difference in urination? I find myself wanting to pee more often because my bladder would feel pressured.

      3. Did you have any burning sensation down there?

      I am feeling very desperate now and it would be nice to talk to someone who has been through this before. Looking forward to your response smile

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