chronic vulvar dermatitis and redness

I’ve struggled with vulva irritation chronically for years. I used to get a lot of yeast infections or at least assume that was what they were but back in July I went to the gyno again and she realized I also had dermatitis.

She gave me a steroid cream to use for a while and I started wearing only cotton underwear, sleeping naked, only using unscented body wash/hand soap/laundry detergent, took a break from sex and masturbating, and some other things that probably aren’t coming to mind. That helped with most of the constant itching but the redness never fully went away - it got a bit better but it’s still been fairly red since then. I also constantly feel like I’m about to be itchy or irritated and just always a little raw and not feeling 100% right.

So I went back to her around the end of March and she referred me to a dermatologist who diagnosed me with lichen sclerosus and gave me a stronger steroid cream. I used it twice a day for three weeks as directed and felt like it actually made things a bit worse. I went back to the dermatologist in the beginning of May and she did a biopsy which came back as dermatitis after all. I’m relieved it’s not LS but frustrated I’m back where I was last summer.

I’ve started using Vaseline every day instead of any steroid creams. I don’t use any sort of soap in the area, just lukewarm water. I wash my hands with unscented soap every time before I touch anything down there. I still use only cotton underwear and started hand washing it with an unscented detergent for sensitive skin and sleep naked most of the time. I even bought unbleached bamboo toilet paper. I haven’t had sex or masturbated in 2 months. And I’m still red!!!!

Is there anything else that could be possibly triggering this that I haven’t thought of? Anything else that might help? Or is it possible this redness is just sort of normal?

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