Rash-Water? Soap?

[merenator.livejournal.com]

I'm in a long distance relationship. Whenever I visit my boyfriend, I get a rash. For a while, I thought I was just irritated by having sex. But, then I realized I only get a rash when I visit him, not when he comes here (and I never got a rash when he still lived here.) The house he lives at has really hard water. I thought it could perhaps be the soap, but even when I use my own soap I get a rash. That leads me to believe that, for some reason, the hard water is giving me a rash. First, does that make any sense at all? Is it even possible? Or am I overlooking something? I suppose I'm not even sure it's a rash. What happens is that my labia gets very red and swollen--very tender to the touch. And, after a while, there's like little cuts, almost. Also, I experience a lot of discharge, but it doesn't seem like a yeast infection at all. It's very frustrating because it happens every time I go there, making it very hard to be intimate. Any help or suggestions would be very appreciated! Thank you!

Another OH NO birth control problem

[thinktink16.livejournal.com]

OOPS! I accidentally dropped and then lost my pill today in a gross/dark parking lot! This is the first time this has happened to me in a few years and definitely the first time it's ever happened to me with a triphasic pill (ortho tri cylen lo). I just took the next pill in the pack, which was the last of this particular color. (So tomorrow would have been the last of this color, but I took it today) Now, should I just continue with the next color, or should I see if I can track down my next month and just take one of the same colored pills from that? That seems like such a waste of that month (and $25).

If I just decide to skip tomorrow, or continue straight through with the knowledge that I will be one pill short this month, how long do we need to use condoms? A week? Or for the rest of this cycle?

I totally thought I had this BC thing down, but this triphasic stuff is really messing with me!

Question about Lubricants

[iidx-girl.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I have never used lubricants before, but we think it's about time to give it a shot. Does anyone know any good ones that warms, tastes good (or at least is tasteless), lasts a long time, and isn't sticky or requires clean-up?

I've used a lubricant one other time before, and I can't remember what it is, but during my after-sex-shower, I would manage to scoop out these really weird, like, leftovers from the lube. I want to avoid that, too...any idea what causes that?

I've looked at KY intense, but I read a lot of bad reviews about it. Any suggestions would be awesome, and I'll immediately get some/try it out because I think it really is worth another shot!

Birth Control and Insomnia

[juhunt.livejournal.com]

Hey Ladies,

I have a quick, 3 am question. I've read a lot about birth control causing insomnia, but I'm curious if could work the other way too. Could birth control help with insomnia for some people?

I've always had difficulty falling asleep. I was on birth control for two and a half years, starting in December of 2007, and just went off of it about...5 months ago. While I was on birth control I rarely if ever had trouble falling asleep. I NEVER had up-all-nighters where I never was able to fall asleep all night (except once when I was extremely jet lagged from a trip coming back from Japan). But since I've gone off, I've had several up-all-nighters and many nights where I just tossed and turned unable to fall asleep for hours.

Insomnia is so frustrating. I went off of the pill due to vulvar vestibulitis (wanted to see if it would help with the condition, which it didn't) and due to this I'm thinking of just saying to heck with it and getting back on.

Anyone have any thoughts/experience with this?

Incontinence?

[electricdruid.livejournal.com]

I know there's no such thing as a stupid question but sometimes I wonder if this might be one. Not that I'm embarrassed if it is :P

Basically, my question is: how does a girl know if she's suffering from incontinence?

I'm 21, and for much of my pubescent life I've experienced discharge that stains my underwear. Often is is pale yellow, which washes out, but over time it becomes darker, more like a pale brown. Buildup, I suppose. I'm not talking years, here. I'm not keeping my underwear that long. Obviously if I've had it for years and it's stained like that, I'm going to toss it. But if I've only had the pair a few months... 

I know every woman is different, but my mother likes to declare that my "stains" are so dark and she never had any discharge like that and there must be something wrong with either me or the way I wear my underwear (her suggestion is to change my panties twice as often. She also told me to buy only dark underwear so that this doesn't happen anymore. Which is false, of course. It'll still happen, I just won't see it). My boyfriend occasionally gets uncomfortable about it when we're doing laundry at his place and asks me to throw out some of the worst offenders, telling me that when he was a kid he did his family's underwear and never noticed this with his mom's or sister's undies (TMI?).

Anyway, so I've got to thinking- what if I'm experiencing incontinence? How do I know if this is a drop or two of urine, or if it's regular discharge? Would urine be likely to color underwear in this way? Would discharge?

YI and antibiotics question.

[ellem1985.livejournal.com]

Hey ladies,

I've been having an issue getting yeast infections because I'm taking antibiotics for my face. I get a YI a few days before my period starts and it's getting really annoying. I've just started taking acidophilus lately and it's helped a lot, I'm just wondering if there's a way to make them not happen at all while I'm taking my antibiotics? Also, when I get a yeast infection around the time of my period, can I treat it without it coming back during the same week if my hormones are still high?

Help!

-Elle

Irregular, light cycle and depression?

[dartemis24.livejournal.com]

Sup, ladies,

My cycle is really irregular. I have very light menstruation most of the times (I don't even need a pad half the cycle), but that's when my cycle is irregular. I skip weeks, even months. When I do have my cycle regularly (usually summer months when I'm least stressed), it's pretty normal in flow. Super tampon on heavy days, regular otherwise. My first period was 4 years ago. I've never had a regular cycle for more than three-four months, though.

I'm not anemic, and pretty healthy besides the depression that was peaked around January of this year. Right now, I'm pretty stable and taking minimal dosage of antidepressants. I've had irregular cycles before depressions, though.

Anyone else have cycles like this? Is this a problem worth going to the gynecologist? I mean, I'm happy with the light flow since it's a lot less trouble, but I think it's too good to be true without strings attached.

Research: Managing Wellness through Internet Communities (final reminder!)

[bumc-anthro.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone! As some of you might know already, I am conducting a study about how people use VP and other internet resources to help them care for themselves. If you've already participated, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I already have quite a bit of of wonderful data and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has been so forthcoming and generous with their stories.

This will be the third and final request for participants, so if you've wanted to complete the survey and haven't, now is the time!

My name is Meryl. I'm a medical anthropologist at Boston University Medical Center, and I'm doing research on how people use the internet to help them manage their health. I chose VP for this project because I believe the internet helps people gain agency and become empowered with knowledge about their own bodies, and I can't think of a community that better exemplifies those beliefs. I'm excited because even though there's hardly any research on communities like VP, they are becoming increasingly important in understanding how people self-care for themselves.

I'd like to ask you to fill out a little anonymous survey to help me with this project. It's mainly about your use of VP and how you combine the internet with other methods to take care of yourself. It's not a very long survey, and I hope it won't take you more than 15 minutes to complete. If you want to, you can also participate in an extra email or phone interview, but this part is totally optional. You need to be 13 or over to participate in the survey, and 18 or older to be interviewed.

This research study has been approved and sponsored by the Institutional Review Board at the Boston University School of Medicine. I also asked permission from VPs moderators before I began to develop the study, and they have given me the go-ahead to do so. Additionally, they've been able to look at and approve my survey questions.

( Under the cut, there is a formal recruitment notice. )

So, if you'd like to take the survey, just click here or go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/vp3 .

If you have any questions at all, I'd love to answer them. At the request of the medical ethics board, it would be preferable if you sent me a PM instead of commenting here - nobody besides you is to know whether you decide to participate, and to comply with VP's rules I can't screen comments. However, if you don't care that others know you are participating, commenting here with questions is fine.

Again, thanks so much. I'm really grateful to all participants, and really to all the members of this community. I'm a member myself with my regular LJ, and I know it's helped me. I hope through this research I can discover how it's helped you, too.

My Essure... Or, Cake: Have a Piece of It

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Preface: I had my procedure at noon today; it is now 2:35pm my time as I'm starting to write. I also had lunch in there, just to give you an idea of the time line.

The short version is that it went really well, and I will enthusiastically attest to the "reduced pain and recovery time" claims made about it. A step-by-step of what happened:

( I totally wish I had pics. But alas, I do not. )

My biggest concern now is to whether to start taking HBC again or continue with FAM. One is way easier and statistically more effective; the other is more happy-making for my body.

That, and I believe we have been discussing the possibility of pizza for dinner....

HPV

[persian--girl.livejournal.com]

If you have HPV and its not showing any signs or symptoms, will it still show up as an abnormal pap smear?

My friend got an abnormal pap and it turned out she has HPV. She wanted to know if her boyfriend was cheating and her doctor said she wasnt sure, that HPV "comes and goes" so it is possible for it not to show up in last years pap.

This doesnt sound right to me, I thought if you had something, regardless of it showing symptoms, it would show up in a test.