Illnesses Other than STIs Vaginally Transmittable?

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

So here's a funny story... I just switched to the Nuvaring yesterday, so I spent a bit of time poking around in my vagina to make sure it was seated properly, not falling out, etc. I made sure to thoroughly wash my hands with soap and hot water prior to each prodding session, but even so... bam! Last night I was hit with the worst cold I have ever had. The timing seems a bit odd to me because the only person I know who is sick is my brother, and I've been living in the same house as him for a few weeks now, and hadn't caught his cold (yes, he has had the cold that long). My theory then is that he may have wiped his snotty nose on the towel I used to dry my hands pre-Nuva insertion and I got sick from rubbing his virus all over my vaginal mucous membranes.

I've heard of people using the membranes in their nether regions for consuming medicines, drugs, alcohol and the like, but I've never heard of something like the common cold being transmissable that way.

Have any of you VPers ever heard of something like this happening, or had any experience with it? It all seems perfectly logical to me, but I'm a bit unhappy about having to worry about infections other than yeasties every time I swap out a Nuvaring. :(

Comments

[pretty492.livejournal.com]

*Just so you know I've got my confused face on and I am NOT an expert.* But body fluids are body fluids right? Saliva, eye juice, snot, vagina mucas, it's all pretty much the same I'd think.

[foureyeddarlin.livejournal.com]

After a couple of weeks, your brother is unlikely to be contagious, assuming he has the common cold. You also don't need to be showing symptoms to be contagious: there's no telling who may have exposed you. It also takes about a day to 5 days for symptoms to appear when you've been exposed: it seems a bit early for you to have shown symptoms last night if you were exposed yesterday.

However, it is possible.

[archangelbeth]

Adding to this -- it sounds like your brother does not have a cold (unless he's been catching one cold before the other wore off), but instead has an allergy, or possibly a case of sinusitus. If it's the latter, he might run a fever and get a horrible headache and require antibiotics (as I did, winding up in the emergency room on Christmas Day, wheeeee). If it's the former, Claritin (and generics of it) are available over the counter now, and my spouse[1] has had good results with the stuff. O:>

[Footnote 1: He's allergic to all deciduous trees, a host of molds, and rabbits. Seriously.]

I'd be inclined to suspect that the cold-catching is either coincidence, or because your body is going "WTF??" at the hormonal shifts and something happened to be in the environment.

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

My brother has a long history of having these kinds of lingering colds... I think his immune system is just not very motivated, so I'm fairly certain it is a cold. He did have a lot of sinus problems (and also allergies--man, poor kid) when he was younger, so I trust him to differentiate the symptoms. :)

I hadn't thought of my body going "WTF" at the hormone changes, but you're right, it does seem like a possible culprit, and much more likely than mere coincidence. I rarely pick up colds, so the timing of this one just struck me as pretty suspicious.

[andreya.livejournal.com]

I'm not a doctor so this is just my opinion too...

If he dried his nose on the towel you used for your hands, didn't you use those same hands for eating too? So his germs could get into your mouth etc too...
*may the person with the cold just use another towel & keep it separate*

Also, germs can be transmitted through air etc. Through coughing or such... you can breathe them in... You've been exposed to them before...

Basically it comes to the strength of your immune system (& whole body-mind connection)

My personal belief is, if you *believe* this can happen(or fear, or obsess about it too much), then it can!
But it's always safer to use a different towel, no?

At least with me, the body-mind connection is very strong!
I found I got a cold when I got fed up with everything, & there was just too much & I wanted to just run away from it all, like Louise Hay says!!
(Especially if I didn't eat right & was exposed to stress also)

Otherwise I do agree with the above posters too...

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

It's definitely possible for the cold to have been transmitted in other ways, but considering how long I've spent in close quarters with my brother, it seems like if it was going to happen through food or coughing it would have happened already.

The mind-body connection is also definitely real (I've also experienced illnesses coming and going at the mere desperate desire for them to do so), but I don't think it had much to do with my cold this time around since none of this even occurred to me until after I was already sick, but thanks for the input. :)

[andreya.livejournal.com]

Cool! You're one of the only 2 people I know who can get ill at desire ;)) I am such too..

I wasn't speaking about desire but about sort of 'overwhelm' (which is another cause for my illnesses), & the poster above put it better than I could ;) (Body going 'WTF?')

[girlnameddoor.livejournal.com]

Wait...consuming alcohol through the vagina? That just seems, well, burny to me!

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure it's consumption of alcohol via the rectum, but who knows... I'm sure there's someone out there who's tried it vaginally. D:

[chef-rex.livejournal.com]

Interesting question...let me know if the thought train makes sense. :) Generally the only cells that are actually infected by a cold virus are epithelial cells somewhere in your respiratory tract (nose, sinuses, pharynx, trachea, lungs, etc.), and the watery discharge from your nose/eyes would be caused by more local effects of infection - such as the death of those cells and the ensuing inflammatory response. All the rest of the symptoms like the fever, aching, and general crappiness are caused by your immune system being on high alert. So...if a cold virus infected the epithelial cells in your vagina, wouldn't you have general crappiness accompanied by discomfort and watery discharge from your vagina...and no discharge from the nose?

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

I don't claim to be any sort of medical expert, but if the infection is caused by a virus, it could be either a systemic ailment or a localized one. Some viruses simply have different organs or bodily systems that they prefer to attack regardless of original point of exposure, and if they are opportunistic infectors (which it seems logical that by definition they would be), wouldn't it be possible for the virus to enter the body at one location (a permeable place like a mucous membrane) and manifest in another?

You can catch a cold through viral exposure to the membranes in your eyes, which aren't really associated with your respiratory system, so why not membranes elsewhere?