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Does it "actually" smell? Or is it just noticeable to you? I.e., have others commented, especially health care providers, that it smells to THEM, too?
Is there any possibility of like a retained tampon stuck wayyyy up in there somewhere? I had a case similar where a woman reported foul odor and yucky discharge for a while, like months. Saw her PCP, then her OBGYN who couldn't find anything wrong. She came to the ER I was working at at the time and by LUCK, I spotted something inside her and pulled out what looked like a slimy hairball that was kinda tucked way in and back along the floor. Appeared to be a wicked old tampon. Follow up call a week later and she was better.
A friend of mine had this happen. She got drunk one night, had sex, and a tampon got lost inside. After about 3 months she put it together. The smell was out of this world.
This actually happened to me twice! First one was lost for about 2-3 months before I realized what was going on and the 2nd one was lost for about 2 weeks.. my friends called me antique tampon in the group chat lol
God I had one stuck in me once for just over a week and the smell was putrid. 6 years later and I still can’t believe my then boyfriend had sex with me that one night.
Heard of that happening during an adult scene, they use makeup sponges to keep the blood at bay apparently. Girl forgot it up there and went to film another scene weeks later and multiple member of the crew vomited from the smell.
Yes! This happened to me when I was much younger. I saw my gyn who did a pelvic and didn’t feel it, pelvis US didn’t even show it. At the time I was doing heavy weight training and I guess after a heavy squat day it forced itself out. I also had a BV odor (much milder than retained tampon) when my Paraguard was getting older, which my gyn didn’t think was related - talked to an MD friend who had a similar issue with it. Once it was removed the odor disappeared. My husband is so kind and never complained about the odor, but it was obvious to me.
I've had paraguard for 5 years and a weird smell that developed about a year ago. I never thought they could be related but it makes sense. I'm gonna definitely bring it up. thank you!
No idea why - perhaps it changes the pH and thus flora? I would use boric acid suppositories and they would briefly help. My friend who is an MD (not GYN but a dermatologist) told me there are studies to support this phenomena, but I confess I never looked into them myself. But yes removing it solved my issue immediately!
This happened to me once I had 3 little kids adhd and no sleep and I put an extra one in in the middle of the night. Wo taking one out. 3 days later I was like why do I smell like a corpse. Went fishing and found the culprit. I’m super paranoid about it now
It’s embarrassingly easy to do if you’re sleeping deprived or on medication that makes you weird. Especially those little OB ones. They’re very stackable lol
I had a horrible odor for about a year in high school. Being an awkward teen and all it took me that long to ask my mom to make a doctor appointment. An OB tampon was in there somewhere. No idea how it even happened. Looking back on it, I am surprised I didn’t get toxic shock syndrome. 😳. I don’t know why that specific brand is so easy to lose-maybe the lack of applicator 🤷♀️
There was one other time where I was afraid I lost one in me.. Ike I said I got super paranoid after that one time.. bc the bleeding stopped abruptly, no brown goo at the end and I went to the dr, there was no smell and I couldn’t feel anything but I couldn’t stop panicking about it. Well there was nothing there and I asked about tss and was told it’s super rare. If leaving a tampon in for a year didn’t cause it I’m not sure what even does lol
I found one in my wife.. It was there for about two weeks. She said it felt like a yeast infection. Itchy with a creamy discharge. Again it was lack of sleep due to our young children not sleeping. She was horrified but I’m glad we have the kind of relationship where she can ask me to check it out for her.
I work at a strip club. I tuck the string way up there to hide it when I dance. I put a new one in without taking the one from work out by accident, didn't realize I had two tampons in at a time for 4 days. I was so shocked when I came to the realization. I always double check now!
Much better option than clipping the string with the strip club backroom scissors. I've had friends ask me to check for them bc they cut the string and forgot. Dear lord am I paranoid now!
If I didn’t know what it was I would totally think it was a dead mouse. Same smell lol and even had a tail haha . Luckily my husband was working away from home hence the sleep Depravation and I wasn’t working outside the home at the time so no one but me and now this sub knows lmao
This happened to me too. Mine was in for longer than 3 days though…I have no idea how long that extra one was in there. I too went fishing and I puked when i pulled it out because the smell was rancid!
It's happened to me too, I also have ADHD and it was at a time that I think I was super stressed and just... Not paying attention. Luckily I felt it when it lodged itself at a weird angle after about 24 hours.. otherwise I would have never noticed
NAD. This also happened to my friend. She self described herself as a fish market and everyone around her agreed. She found an extremly old tampon that solved her issue
Happened to me with a CUP just a couple of months ago. It was a softer one and got rolled up alongside my cervix. I even got a pelvic exam and they didn't see it. It was awful. Finally found it while bathing...luckily I was fine, but I almost vomited.
As a user of disposable period cups, I can tell you right now that I know one of these days I’m going to forget one is there. They fit so perfectly and nothing hangs out.
It’s actually partly why I don’t use them anymore… I don’t bleed very much and i had several times where I’d forget about it and realized I’d had it in for over 48 hours. 😬😬😬
Yeah, I thought I would be safe with a cup. But, I don't know about you, but my general shape and size changes drastically during my period, so I did lose one recently! 😔
For vaginal odor, many women find benefit from vaginal suppositories with boric acid (like pH-D Feminine Health, which you can buy OTC). Talk to your doctor about it and see if it is something you’d want to try.
They were looking for something totally different in the exam—evidence of a raging fire so to speak, not to check the basement for a hidden tenant.
I wouldn’t stop without a second “opinion” in this case.
So, I get a smell sometimes and I've found that Lume cream has been a life changer. Maybe see if it's not actually your vagina, but the vaginal fluids, sweat, etc all swirling around. They sell like travel size ones on Amazon.
I second Lume. It's been great. I also have a large chest a struggled with smell on hot days and Lume has been an absolute game changer when it comes to that.
NAD. Are you taking probiotics?? They sell ones specifically for vaginal heath. Also you might think about trying a PH balancing wash. The brand “Good Clean Love” has a really nice one. I’ve gotten BV from washing too much with regular soap, as it can irritate and remove the good bacteria (I know you don’t have this, just mentioning because it could be part of what’s causing odor). Your vag is literally a little ecosystem just like your mouth, stomach, intestines, etc.
I've read about someone getting an actual hairball in there too, from cat hair on her bed migrating into her vagina during sex. I can't even imagine the horror.
More than likely possible outcome in this case. Hope OP goes and finds a physician like you that’s willing and ready to help get her life back to normal.
Have heard countless stories that sound like hers, and it’s the main culprit.
Hope OP braces herself for the chance that’s what it is, it’s immediately solved, and she realizes those two years were lost because no professional could actually hear her. Likely to be a period of grief.
What does it smell like?
Have you tried a bidet? Is it your vagina or the area around it?
I sweat a LOT "down there" and have found a bidet helps with the odor (in between showers).
Also, some soaps can unbalance your pH there. I've been using regular dove and it has the best pH balance, for me anyway.
I’m a Gynecologist. It’s not normal to have a “real odor” like that. Get a second opinion. Have you at any point had BV or other type of infectious discharge or vaginitis??? Have you tried Boric acid vaginal suppositories???
Is your Pap normal? Unlikely but a necrotic mass can smell horrible!! This can be from cervical cancer or from a prolapsed myoma.
A retained tampon should be ruled out! It can easily be missed!! Not only do you need a speculum exam bur also a digital exam, maybe even an imaging study!!!
NAD but I used to do extensive work with a women’s health nonprofit that did free gyno exams. Every single one of those OBGYNs had stories about women coming in with retained tampons. Many of them even recounting stories about how the tampon had been missed on the first exam due to it getting pushed aside by the speculum. Apparently we’re capable of hiding all kinds of things in there - like our very own Mary Poppins purse!
I have gone multiples times to two people. I have had BV in past but apparently not for years. I’ve been tested for seemingly everything under the sun in the last two years. They were giving me antibiotics just to see if it helped anything. Pap was normal each time. I skip my period so I don’t use tampons. I have used boric acid once but I gave up after a week bc it didn’t do anything but I will keep with it. I don’t think my gyno is maybe taking it as seriously as I am.
If you are in the US, I highly advise you to visit a Planned Parenthood. They will work with you to find and resolve the culprit, testing for things that the avg. doc’s office doesn’t. It could be something as simple as trichomoniasis or something more esoteric, but they will find it!
Did they just do routine cultures (yeast, BV, STIs) or an expanded one?
I saw that you said other people have noticed it - have you reached in to make sure no retained objects (condoms/tampon)?
And finally, any history of inflammatory bowel disease? Story time: I had a patient with similar issue who came to me after trying everything. I did a more expanded culture which grew out e faecalis and turns out she had IBD which led to a fistula between her rectum and uterus which caused bad smelling discharge for obvious reasons.
This is of course rare, but if it’s a new onset bad odor that is noticed by others including the clinicians, I would keep pushing for further testing until something is figured out.
Would it make sense to do a round of treatment for yest or bacterial infection, just in case?
I'm curious if that would potentially be too harmful to try?
Have you been tested for UTI? Sometimes urine can have a very foul smell with UTI. Toilet paper only dries up your skin, it doesn’t remove all the urine. So if you have a UTI it is possible that the urine is mixing with healthy discharge, sweat, etc. and making it smell foul.
I had a similar problem to you - a terrible fishy, ammonia type smell that I could NOT get rid of. I tried BV stuff, antibiotics, showering twice a day and using wet wipes after using the loo didn’t help either. Nothing worked.
I honestly can’t remember now how I worked out what was going on, but it turned out that I didn’t actually have anything going on with my vagina at all, I was leaking small amounts of urine which was reacting with the bacteria on my skin and around my vulva and causing the smell.
Pelvic floor exercises for several months (and panty liners while the exercise were working) have completely solved the problem. Maybe something similar might be happening to you? I hope you find an answer, it’s a horrible problem to have. Good luck.
Have you try the bacterial vaginosis tubes form canesten? Also, probiotics for vaginal flora, wearing pantry liners and changing them often. Wearing only cotton y see wears and breathable pants? Check if you sweat around there, it could be the sweat. If it smells like fish, there is a rare thing that you can’t process something in fish and it excretes from your fluids. Not a doc
Your balance of flora may be a bit off (even if you're not actively infected). A round or two of probiotic suppositories containing lactobacillus jensenii or crispatus should help. Vagibiome makes one and I know at least one more is in US clinical trials. They're also readily available in Canada and Europe.
Are you taking any medications or supplements? What is your typical diet (lots of meat? Primarily veggies?). Avoiding smoking, drinking, and added sugars in your diet may help. Wear cotton underwear and please do not wash the inside of your vagina and only use mild soap and water on your vulva.
So I have this issue with certain birth control and it took ages to figure out that was the cause and I wasn’t just randomly getting yeast infections or bv out of the blue.
People respond differently to the different inactive ingredients in the generics and there may be something in the brand you’re taking that skews your ph to a bad zone. See if switching birth control makes any difference.
Sorry you may have elaborated on this elsewhere, but can you give an indication of what the smell is? The default thought is “fishy”, but there are other malodours which can occur which can help narrow down the origin (e.g. ammonia smell could indicate urine leak, fecal smell could be a fistula, garlicy smell could be diet-related discharge for example!)
I'm sorry that this is going to be no help, for now, but I watched a medical mysteries type show maybe 10 years ago and the young woman had a very similar problem. She said she hated it because she felt people in public could smell her genitals and would assume it was a hygiene issue. I don't remember what the condition was, but I'll post in r/tipofmytongue and see if I can crowdsource the episode and find out.
The combination of taking Vitamin B2 and Lume deodorant works wonders for trimethylaminurea. I have a neuromuscular disorder and have to take large amounts of levocarnitine, which has a fishy odor in the first place and can REALLY cause you to smell fishy
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I also want to add, that not soap, antibiotics, or anything you regularly get prescribed differentiate between what type of bacteria they kill. They just kill, both the good and the bad ones.
Thank you for your submission. **Please note that a response does not constitute a doctor-patient relationship.** This subreddit is for informal second opinions and casual information. The mod team does their best to remove bad information, but we do not catch all of it. Always visit a doctor in real life if you have any concerns about your health. Never use this subreddit as your first and final source of information regarding your question. By posting, you are agreeing to our [Terms of Use](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskDocs/wiki/terms_of_use) and understand that all information is taken at your own risk. **Reply here if you are an unverified user wishing to give advice. Top level comments by laypeople are automatically removed.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskDocs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Does it "actually" smell? Or is it just noticeable to you? I.e., have others commented, especially health care providers, that it smells to THEM, too? Is there any possibility of like a retained tampon stuck wayyyy up in there somewhere? I had a case similar where a woman reported foul odor and yucky discharge for a while, like months. Saw her PCP, then her OBGYN who couldn't find anything wrong. She came to the ER I was working at at the time and by LUCK, I spotted something inside her and pulled out what looked like a slimy hairball that was kinda tucked way in and back along the floor. Appeared to be a wicked old tampon. Follow up call a week later and she was better.
A friend of mine had this happen. She got drunk one night, had sex, and a tampon got lost inside. After about 3 months she put it together. The smell was out of this world.
I was a gynecology provider for several years. Can confirm description of this smell.
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This actually happened to me twice! First one was lost for about 2-3 months before I realized what was going on and the 2nd one was lost for about 2 weeks.. my friends called me antique tampon in the group chat lol
I threw up when I got mine out. It was what I imagine a dead body would smell like…in my vagina 🤮🤮
Yup happened to my ex. That tampon was pure black upon extraction. You don't want to know.
I’m surprised any of these people didn’t get toxic shock syndrome
God I had one stuck in me once for just over a week and the smell was putrid. 6 years later and I still can’t believe my then boyfriend had sex with me that one night.
Heard of that happening during an adult scene, they use makeup sponges to keep the blood at bay apparently. Girl forgot it up there and went to film another scene weeks later and multiple member of the crew vomited from the smell.
Yes! This happened to me when I was much younger. I saw my gyn who did a pelvic and didn’t feel it, pelvis US didn’t even show it. At the time I was doing heavy weight training and I guess after a heavy squat day it forced itself out. I also had a BV odor (much milder than retained tampon) when my Paraguard was getting older, which my gyn didn’t think was related - talked to an MD friend who had a similar issue with it. Once it was removed the odor disappeared. My husband is so kind and never complained about the odor, but it was obvious to me.
Username checks!
Please take your well deserved upvote and thank you for the laugh!
A little bit of humour never hurts from time to time in this sub! Your comments are on point tho
I’m glad my experience shared here is anonymous because I certainly wouldn’t be volunteering these stories to anyone in real life haha
I've had paraguard for 5 years and a weird smell that developed about a year ago. I never thought they could be related but it makes sense. I'm gonna definitely bring it up. thank you!
Seriously?? Never heard of this. Any idea why? You might have just solved my mystery. I'll force myself to get my iud changed (welp)
No idea why - perhaps it changes the pH and thus flora? I would use boric acid suppositories and they would briefly help. My friend who is an MD (not GYN but a dermatologist) told me there are studies to support this phenomena, but I confess I never looked into them myself. But yes removing it solved my issue immediately!
I'm curious, did the gyno use the speculum to "rake a look" and they still didn't see anything weird?
To be honest it was so long ago so I don’t remember with great confidence, but I believe he did.
This happened to me once I had 3 little kids adhd and no sleep and I put an extra one in in the middle of the night. Wo taking one out. 3 days later I was like why do I smell like a corpse. Went fishing and found the culprit. I’m super paranoid about it now
It’s embarrassingly easy to do if you’re sleeping deprived or on medication that makes you weird. Especially those little OB ones. They’re very stackable lol
Yes. Happened to me twice during nursing school. I felt like a complete fool.
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Our brains must have been melting lol
I had a horrible odor for about a year in high school. Being an awkward teen and all it took me that long to ask my mom to make a doctor appointment. An OB tampon was in there somewhere. No idea how it even happened. Looking back on it, I am surprised I didn’t get toxic shock syndrome. 😳. I don’t know why that specific brand is so easy to lose-maybe the lack of applicator 🤷♀️
There was one other time where I was afraid I lost one in me.. Ike I said I got super paranoid after that one time.. bc the bleeding stopped abruptly, no brown goo at the end and I went to the dr, there was no smell and I couldn’t feel anything but I couldn’t stop panicking about it. Well there was nothing there and I asked about tss and was told it’s super rare. If leaving a tampon in for a year didn’t cause it I’m not sure what even does lol
I got toxic shock from this!
Lol stackable. Same thing happened to me w/ those lil OBs 😭
They’re a *menace!* I mean, handy as hell for light days and oh so portable but they’re kind of too small for your own good.
Menace is a good word to describe them lol. I’m always amazed they absorb anything given how tiny they are!
NAD. I did this before also. I had toddlers and was getting no sleep. Put an extra one in not realizing.
I found one in my wife.. It was there for about two weeks. She said it felt like a yeast infection. Itchy with a creamy discharge. Again it was lack of sleep due to our young children not sleeping. She was horrified but I’m glad we have the kind of relationship where she can ask me to check it out for her.
I’m glad you were able to help her. I was so embarrassed, I didn’t tell my husband until after.
NAD did this myself too it was only 24 hours but I was mortified when it slipped out
I had to really fish mine out. I have to admit I used pads a lot more after that.
I'm hyper vigilant now it scares me 😩
I work at a strip club. I tuck the string way up there to hide it when I dance. I put a new one in without taking the one from work out by accident, didn't realize I had two tampons in at a time for 4 days. I was so shocked when I came to the realization. I always double check now!
Reading these stories makes me shocked that I've never done it with my adhd and general flakiness!
Much better option than clipping the string with the strip club backroom scissors. I've had friends ask me to check for them bc they cut the string and forgot. Dear lord am I paranoid now!
omg me too. 3 kids, too much going on, never thought that was possible but it was! luckily i figured it out pretty quickly.
Me too. Had one extra in accidentally for a few days and have never used tampons since. Horrendous.
If I didn’t know what it was I would totally think it was a dead mouse. Same smell lol and even had a tail haha . Luckily my husband was working away from home hence the sleep Depravation and I wasn’t working outside the home at the time so no one but me and now this sub knows lmao
Same haha, it was a time where I was off work and hadn’t been anywhere…I’m so glad about that.
This happened to me too. Mine was in for longer than 3 days though…I have no idea how long that extra one was in there. I too went fishing and I puked when i pulled it out because the smell was rancid!
I skimmed this and for a minute I thought a fish went up ur vagina I was like WHAT 😭😭😭
It's happened to me too, I also have ADHD and it was at a time that I think I was super stressed and just... Not paying attention. Luckily I felt it when it lodged itself at a weird angle after about 24 hours.. otherwise I would have never noticed
NAD. This also happened to my friend. She self described herself as a fish market and everyone around her agreed. She found an extremly old tampon that solved her issue
Following up on this that it could be a used condom or part of it stuck in there as well
Btw, it happened to me, so I’m thinking that’s your best bet
Happened to me with a CUP just a couple of months ago. It was a softer one and got rolled up alongside my cervix. I even got a pelvic exam and they didn't see it. It was awful. Finally found it while bathing...luckily I was fine, but I almost vomited.
As a user of disposable period cups, I can tell you right now that I know one of these days I’m going to forget one is there. They fit so perfectly and nothing hangs out.
It’s actually partly why I don’t use them anymore… I don’t bleed very much and i had several times where I’d forget about it and realized I’d had it in for over 48 hours. 😬😬😬
I feel ya! I’ve had nothing but rotten luck with tampons unfortunately. 😒
Yeah, I thought I would be safe with a cup. But, I don't know about you, but my general shape and size changes drastically during my period, so I did lose one recently! 😔
I lost a whole Nuvaring in my snatch once. That was a fun urgent care trip. 😂💀
THIS. NAD but maybe explore the idea that you have a tampon still inside you.
I had a full exam and they found nothing. It does actually smell. People have said so. :/
For vaginal odor, many women find benefit from vaginal suppositories with boric acid (like pH-D Feminine Health, which you can buy OTC). Talk to your doctor about it and see if it is something you’d want to try.
They were looking for something totally different in the exam—evidence of a raging fire so to speak, not to check the basement for a hidden tenant. I wouldn’t stop without a second “opinion” in this case.
So, I get a smell sometimes and I've found that Lume cream has been a life changer. Maybe see if it's not actually your vagina, but the vaginal fluids, sweat, etc all swirling around. They sell like travel size ones on Amazon.
I second Lume. It's been great. I also have a large chest a struggled with smell on hot days and Lume has been an absolute game changer when it comes to that.
NAD. Are you taking probiotics?? They sell ones specifically for vaginal heath. Also you might think about trying a PH balancing wash. The brand “Good Clean Love” has a really nice one. I’ve gotten BV from washing too much with regular soap, as it can irritate and remove the good bacteria (I know you don’t have this, just mentioning because it could be part of what’s causing odor). Your vag is literally a little ecosystem just like your mouth, stomach, intestines, etc.
Boric acid suppositories
I've read about someone getting an actual hairball in there too, from cat hair on her bed migrating into her vagina during sex. I can't even imagine the horror.
😳😳🤢🤮
It’s possible. Body parts picking up cat hair on the sheets and the cat hair gets tangled with IUD strings is not uncommon.
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These tests are most just a waste of money.
Removed - Bad advice
NAD. Is this something that can be detected on an ultrasound or scan of some sort? X-ray, CT ?
I did this once. I kept spotting and didn't know why. I went to the ER and had one tucked WAY up there.
Um where does it go when it’s lost and a doc can’t even see it? How do you begin to look for it?
It lurks in the depths.
More than likely possible outcome in this case. Hope OP goes and finds a physician like you that’s willing and ready to help get her life back to normal. Have heard countless stories that sound like hers, and it’s the main culprit. Hope OP braces herself for the chance that’s what it is, it’s immediately solved, and she realizes those two years were lost because no professional could actually hear her. Likely to be a period of grief.
This!
What does it smell like? Have you tried a bidet? Is it your vagina or the area around it? I sweat a LOT "down there" and have found a bidet helps with the odor (in between showers). Also, some soaps can unbalance your pH there. I've been using regular dove and it has the best pH balance, for me anyway.
NAD but I am curious on a doctors input - could changes in hormone levels or diet cause what OP is experiencing?
NAD but from research and just life, I would say yes. That said, I'm curious as to the nature of the odor (what, specifically, it smells like).
Boric acid vaginal pills were given to Me by my doctor. The only thing that worked For me.
Yes!!! I was getting constant UTIs a few years back and someone suggested white dove and never had an issue again!
I’m a Gynecologist. It’s not normal to have a “real odor” like that. Get a second opinion. Have you at any point had BV or other type of infectious discharge or vaginitis??? Have you tried Boric acid vaginal suppositories??? Is your Pap normal? Unlikely but a necrotic mass can smell horrible!! This can be from cervical cancer or from a prolapsed myoma. A retained tampon should be ruled out! It can easily be missed!! Not only do you need a speculum exam bur also a digital exam, maybe even an imaging study!!!
NAD but I used to do extensive work with a women’s health nonprofit that did free gyno exams. Every single one of those OBGYNs had stories about women coming in with retained tampons. Many of them even recounting stories about how the tampon had been missed on the first exam due to it getting pushed aside by the speculum. Apparently we’re capable of hiding all kinds of things in there - like our very own Mary Poppins purse!
NAD. Have you tried replacing your underwear? Sometimes the fabric can retain smells from heavy discharge, and the smell never goes away.
Just solved my two year sex drought with this advice. Would recommend
I wanted to piggyback and add a missed condom can also happen. Signed, Someone who horrifically experienced this in her early 20s.
I have gone multiples times to two people. I have had BV in past but apparently not for years. I’ve been tested for seemingly everything under the sun in the last two years. They were giving me antibiotics just to see if it helped anything. Pap was normal each time. I skip my period so I don’t use tampons. I have used boric acid once but I gave up after a week bc it didn’t do anything but I will keep with it. I don’t think my gyno is maybe taking it as seriously as I am.
If you are in the US, I highly advise you to visit a Planned Parenthood. They will work with you to find and resolve the culprit, testing for things that the avg. doc’s office doesn’t. It could be something as simple as trichomoniasis or something more esoteric, but they will find it!
OP have you been checked for an ureaplasma infection?
Did they just do routine cultures (yeast, BV, STIs) or an expanded one? I saw that you said other people have noticed it - have you reached in to make sure no retained objects (condoms/tampon)? And finally, any history of inflammatory bowel disease? Story time: I had a patient with similar issue who came to me after trying everything. I did a more expanded culture which grew out e faecalis and turns out she had IBD which led to a fistula between her rectum and uterus which caused bad smelling discharge for obvious reasons. This is of course rare, but if it’s a new onset bad odor that is noticed by others including the clinicians, I would keep pushing for further testing until something is figured out.
Would it make sense to do a round of treatment for yest or bacterial infection, just in case? I'm curious if that would potentially be too harmful to try?
Yeast does not smell that bad but no it wouldn’t hurt to try a round of antibiotics
Have you been tested for UTI? Sometimes urine can have a very foul smell with UTI. Toilet paper only dries up your skin, it doesn’t remove all the urine. So if you have a UTI it is possible that the urine is mixing with healthy discharge, sweat, etc. and making it smell foul.
Yes, no UTI.
I had a similar problem to you - a terrible fishy, ammonia type smell that I could NOT get rid of. I tried BV stuff, antibiotics, showering twice a day and using wet wipes after using the loo didn’t help either. Nothing worked. I honestly can’t remember now how I worked out what was going on, but it turned out that I didn’t actually have anything going on with my vagina at all, I was leaking small amounts of urine which was reacting with the bacteria on my skin and around my vulva and causing the smell. Pelvic floor exercises for several months (and panty liners while the exercise were working) have completely solved the problem. Maybe something similar might be happening to you? I hope you find an answer, it’s a horrible problem to have. Good luck.
Have you try the bacterial vaginosis tubes form canesten? Also, probiotics for vaginal flora, wearing pantry liners and changing them often. Wearing only cotton y see wears and breathable pants? Check if you sweat around there, it could be the sweat. If it smells like fish, there is a rare thing that you can’t process something in fish and it excretes from your fluids. Not a doc
Hey OP, Have you noticed any changes in the smell of your breath, pee, sweat etc? Or is this smell only your vagina?
Your balance of flora may be a bit off (even if you're not actively infected). A round or two of probiotic suppositories containing lactobacillus jensenii or crispatus should help. Vagibiome makes one and I know at least one more is in US clinical trials. They're also readily available in Canada and Europe. Are you taking any medications or supplements? What is your typical diet (lots of meat? Primarily veggies?). Avoiding smoking, drinking, and added sugars in your diet may help. Wear cotton underwear and please do not wash the inside of your vagina and only use mild soap and water on your vulva.
I’m on BC pill and don’t get my period because I skip. But I have a good diet, hygiene routine. That’s what makes this so frustrating.
NAD but is it feasible your HBC is potentially an issue?
So I have this issue with certain birth control and it took ages to figure out that was the cause and I wasn’t just randomly getting yeast infections or bv out of the blue. People respond differently to the different inactive ingredients in the generics and there may be something in the brand you’re taking that skews your ph to a bad zone. See if switching birth control makes any difference.
What would happen if you let yourself have a period to clear out and change biome
Have you had a proper speculum exam?
Yes. She found nothing wrong.
Sorry you may have elaborated on this elsewhere, but can you give an indication of what the smell is? The default thought is “fishy”, but there are other malodours which can occur which can help narrow down the origin (e.g. ammonia smell could indicate urine leak, fecal smell could be a fistula, garlicy smell could be diet-related discharge for example!)
Could it be exacerbated by your hormonal birth control?
I'm sorry that this is going to be no help, for now, but I watched a medical mysteries type show maybe 10 years ago and the young woman had a very similar problem. She said she hated it because she felt people in public could smell her genitals and would assume it was a hygiene issue. I don't remember what the condition was, but I'll post in r/tipofmytongue and see if I can crowdsource the episode and find out.
There was one episode where a woman had Trimethylaminuria, Fish Odor Syndrome.
The combination of taking Vitamin B2 and Lume deodorant works wonders for trimethylaminurea. I have a neuromuscular disorder and have to take large amounts of levocarnitine, which has a fishy odor in the first place and can REALLY cause you to smell fishy
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I also want to add, that not soap, antibiotics, or anything you regularly get prescribed differentiate between what type of bacteria they kill. They just kill, both the good and the bad ones.
NAD Perhaps consult a pelvic floor therapist?
Oh definetly. I would be very surprised if this was diagnoseable without tests.
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