vagina dryness
Part Two
Let’s continue with Part Two on Vaginal dryness and what we could do to help it, as there are lots of different symptoms that might be going on.
If you didn’t see my previous blog, there is a part one on why Vaginal Dryness happens. Feel free to check it out before jumping in below.
Let’s Break it Down
We might be finding that everything is dry down below, you might get burning, itching, vulva soreness.
You might have recurrent urine infections, going to the loo more often, or sex might be painful.
But what can we do about it?
Lifestyle Modifications
If you were seeing me in clinic, I would start talking about smoking to begin with.
If you are a smoker, smoking increases the metabolism of oestrogen, so it decreases the amount of oestrogen you have.
So that may help and may play a part of making things a bit more comfortable.
Keep Things Moist!
There are a few things we can try, you can even find some over the counter stuff!
To start, we often think about moisturising our faces, but have you ever thought to moisturise your vagina? There is, in fact, are a couple of really good vagina moisturisers out there.
They're not very expensive, ideally, twice a week can just help support the fragile skin of your vagina and your vulva, and help the hydration of the skin itself.
Also, if you're finding sex is a little bit more uncomfortable, don’t forget to moisturise with lube! Honestly, we don't talk about lube enough in this country and I do bang on about it with my patients quite often. Don’t be afraid to add it to the bedroom routine, make everything slippy. Trust me, it will be more fun for you!
Let’s Get onto oEstrogen
All of these symptoms have started because we're hitting menopause and our oestrogen levels are decreasing.
So, it might be that you're on HRT, oral or transdermal or something, and that is helping, but actually, topical oestrogen can be life changing.It has recently had its license changed, so it also licensed for lifelong treatment.
So it's not something that we're going to take off you after 5 years or have that conversation, we will occasionally have reviews. However, if you are finding that your vagina likes the oestrogen, you can be on it, it seems very, very safe, and it's a great treatment.
Next Up: Loading Doses. You might have a pesari or a cream or a gel, and we might say insert it nightly for two to four weeks, and then reduce it to a maintenance dose of a couple of times a week. This performs amazingly.
It can increase the thickness of the skin.
It can increase the secretions, it decreases that pH, so it can reduce the number of recurrent urine infections you might be getting and can really help with urinary symptoms.
The guidelines are now that if you have urinary symptoms and current UTIs, we should be trying a top of pleistrogen, but we're not always having that conversation as GPs. I encourage you to open that dialog and begin to start taking care of you today!