Skipping Periods on Yaz and VVS

[anycah.livejournal.com]

I'm in the middle of my first pack of Yaz HBC (I have been on HBC for two years, just got the opportunity to switch types), and have come to the horrid realization that I will be on my period, more or less, during my wedding.

I know that by starting a new back of certain hormone blends of HBC you can skip your period for a month, and I was wondering if Yaz was one of the kinds you could do that with. I'm also wondering if my just having starting the HBC will have any factor. I've never had any breakthrough bleeding or anything on the pills. I'd never do this normally, I just don't want to be bleeding for this event, for personal reasons.

To switch topics, I had a few questions about vulvar vestibulitis (VVS). I've read a few comments on this community that there is a link between HBC and VVS in some women. As I've been experiencing initial pain upon penetration (that fades after a few strokes), I've been getting worried that maybe it is early/mild VVS, and that my HBC may push it into a more painful, more difficult to manage variety. As I'm prone to getting worried, it is starting to make me worry about having sex, which as you can imagine, puts a bit of a damper on things in my mind. I should never fear what is just an expression of intimacy with my fiance.

It also stings when I insert my Diva Cup if I'm not bleeding heavily enough to lubricate and relax my vaginal opening (I am very light my first and last days). It doesn't usually hurt to push it into my vagina, just when the lip of the cup passes my opening. But then, that stinging is nothing new to me. Just probing the area with a finger and test inserting a finger into my vagina doesn't produce any pain.

I may be being paranoid, but I do not want to have painful sex as a part of my life forever. I'm especially paranoid as my prior HBC of two years was one of the highest estrogen varieties on the market (I wasn't pleased when I figured this out and it explained my crazy side effects), and that even though I've switched types for the time being, I'm likely to be on HBC for about four or five more years until we start our family. If there is going to be a problem with this, I need to know. I'm not too big on IUDs, as I do not want to deal with the chances of scarring, infertility, and hassle that they can be (with expulsion and the issues with the strings), and my fiance and I both hate condoms.

My other explanation is that my fiance and I had a long history of sex while I wasn't fully lubricated. We have now welcomed Astroglide into our bedroom, so that isn't an issue, but I wonder if it is my vagina and opening still being sore and healing from a bit too much sex without proper lubrication (the most hated side effect of my last pills, other than the mood swings, was that I just can't lubricate enough to have pain-free intercourse without outside lube).

Or maybe I'm a touch small, while my fiance is a touch big (I know the "small vagina" business is sometimes a load of bunk, but, uh, I have a hard time getting past inserting two fingers sometimes after two years of heavy sexual activity). Or perhaps the condoms we were using while I was switching pills irritated my vagina a lot (a combination of my not necessarily being lubricated enough and condoms being very prone to giving rug burn, heh).

How many women suffer from VVS? I'm having a hard time finding data, as I keep seeing figures from 1% to 15%.... Should I just go to my gyno and have her test me for VVS to at least put my mind at ease? Would it show up on a test if I have some early stage of? I'm tired of worrying about something that may just be in my head.

I'd be very appreciative for any advice or experience anyone can share. Thanks in advance!

Comments

[druiaen.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about VVS, sorry, but best of luck! With Yaz, you can just skip the placebos and start a new pack and that should skip your period, though you may still experience breakthrough bleeding even if you haven't before. There's no trick to it or anything - I haven't done it with Yaz yet but I skipped almost all my periods on my last monophasic pill without problem.

[anycah.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I knew one sort of pills could do it, I just couldn't remember if Yaz was monophasic or not. :)

[gothstar.livejournal.com]

It's IUD's not, UTI's :) a UTI is a urinary tract infection, and I don't think anyone wants those! <3

[anycah.livejournal.com]

Haha, I just got my acronyms mixed up. I'll go fixed that. XD

[laurensellscorn.livejournal.com]

If you have vaginal pain, your first step is getting into the GYN. They'll test you for all vaginal infections and will likely want to do a full STI panel even if you've been tested before. If all anatomical variations and conditions are ruled out and there's no evidence whatsoever sex should be painful, VVS is considered. The only test for it is probing the vaginal opening with a moist Q-tip; this will present as only slight pressure for a healthy woman, but severe, piercing, burning, or stinging pain in a woman with VVS.

Oral contraceptives are shown to reduce the pain threshold in the vestibular tissue; they also reduce both androgen and estrogen receptor expression. In a nutshell, some women are extremely sensitive to having their genital hormones messed with, and it presents as pain.

I'd say your first step is most definitely to switch to something other than HBC. I'm personally of the mind you can't stay on it forever, anyways, so why risk it? Depending on how frequently you have intercourse and whether or not you back up, barrier methods like the diaphragm are a good choice. If you need a primary method or one with high effectiveness, you might re-consider an IUD.

15% of women in a clinical practice reporting chronic vaginal pain have VVS. It's not a far cry to suggest that the high prevalence has a lot to do with the frequent prescribing of OC's.

So, get ye to a doctor and ask their opinion. If you want to make sure they know what the hell you're talking about instead of "What's VVS" or "Vulvodynia? Pfft. All in your head." you can call ahead to an office to ask if they treat it before making an appointment.

Even if you do have it, VVS doesn't mean the end of the world. I mean, I've had a severe case ever since I was 13 and go in for surgery in a week and it may mean cure or vast improvement. There are plenty of women cured by less dramatic measures, though it's difficult finding a doctor versed in them. Good luck! :)

[anycah.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'll make an appointment and see if I can get better answers. I've already been STD tested, and my doctor said she saw nothing that should indicate pain, so that was part of my worry.

[laurensellscorn.livejournal.com]

Sounds good, wish you luck! Post an update if you can. :)

And for when/if you get a diagnosis or if you just want to know more, the LJ vvs comm might help you out:

http://community.livejournal.com/vvs_community

[anycah.livejournal.com]

I'll post if I learn anything substantial. :) It sounds like quite a few women around here seem to have a similar problem.

[pinkdramon.livejournal.com]

With the vulvodynia & birth control pill connection, it definitely varies from person to person & brand to brand.

Me, I was on Yasmin for 2 years, and I have vulvar vestibulitis. We'll never know 100% wether the birth control pills caused my VVS directly, but my specialist & I think the answer is "Probably not." We think I was probably born with it. But the HBC made it worse. We know it made it worse, because a hormonal blood test revealed that my hormones were all F'ed up, and going off of the pills reduced my pain slightly (but not satisfactorily.) So I guess the pillz just exacerbated it.

But my sister, on the other hand, now she has been on birth control pills (The one with the flower-ballerina commercial - forget the brand...) for 15 years, and she's just fine.

Now as to the "How many" question, the answer is "Anywhere from 2% to 15% of the US female population."
Me personally, I tend to lean towards the 2% estimate actually, simply because I still haven't met any women, personally, who have said to me in person, "O yes I have this thing." But I know a lot of women online with it.
The 15% factors into consideration all women who go to the gynos complaining of vulvar pain or dysparunia & who are not diagnosed with any other problem.

The reason so few women actually say, "O yes I have this thing" though, if up to 15% of the population has it, is because it's still not well understood & doctors don't get a lot of training in it.
I specifically picked up a Gynecological medical text book my college was sellind and I specifically looked for the chapter on "Vulvodynia." It was a 1 & 1/2 page entry... o yeah that's really gona help the gyno in real life 9.9

Now if you're concerned about developing VVS then, I do not have an answer as to how to prevent it. I have not yet found a way to prevent it from occuring. There's not enough research to know.

What you can do in the mean time is, you can go to your regular gyno and tell them what you're worried about and ask them to test you for as many STIs/Yeast strains/Bacteria strains as possible, and maybe other skin conditions like lichens planus & lichens sclerosis. And also get a hormonal blood test, to see if your hormones are within normal levels. And IF all of those tests come back "Negative," THEN you can ask for a referral to a vulvar specialist or at least a gyno who has treated patients with VVS. And you can go and they'll do this "Q-tip test" and see how you react to that. They just take a q-tip and poke & prod around the vestibule and see if that hurts.

Me, when they did the Q-tip test, I cried out and tried to escape.

That Q-tip test is pretty much the only thing we have right now. IF you were to get surgery for it, THEN the surgeon would be able to do a biopsy & see if your nerve endings were all f'ed up. Because that's what it is, the nerve endings are all f'ed up. Either inflamed or you have too many pain nerve endings, depending on who you ask. That's why you can't see it.

Now if your reaction to the q-tip test is a similar reaction or even a "Ow fuck kick the gyno in the face" sort of thing, then you can consider the more mild treatments first like, estrogen gel, maybe a low-dose of tricyclic antidepressants (Not for hte brain; it's for your snatch,) avoidance of irritants, MAYBE a dietary change... the diet thing didn't do much for me. Physical therapy might be a good idea too for you since you say sometimes you have a hard time with inserting your own fingers due to resistance.
And maybe going off the birth control and see if that helps.

And while you're waiting to see the gyno and if you're curious to learn more then you can get The V book, (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Doctors-Complete-Vulvovaginal-Health/dp/0553381148/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-6249787-0421249?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182208250&sr=8-1) which has a big ol' chapter on vulvodynia + lots of other useful vagina information and therefore is helpful even if you don't have VVS, and also The vulvodynia survival guide (http://www.amazon.com/Vulvodynia-Survival-Guide-Overcome-Lifestyle/dp/1572242914/ref=pd_bbs_2/105-6249787-0421249?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182208250&sr=8-2) which is more focused on vulvodynia. They're relatively cheap so it's worth it.

[anycah.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting all of this. :)

After some prodding on my own time, I have found there is one area that is painful in a burny-sore (almost like I would imagine a hemorrhoid) sort of way. Just one spot in the back... it would explain the entirety of my pain, and as the rest of me is alright, I don't think I have VVS.

I'm making an appointment with my gyno tomorrow and talking to her about the one area, as well as getting the ton of tests. I really want to get my hormone levels tested, but I'm thinking of waiting until my new HBC has had a few months to deal with my system as I'm sure my levels are a bit screwy at the moment from the horrid pill I was on for two years. I'm definitely interested in getting them tested, as if they are too off, I'm just going to go off the pills and we'll deal with it.

[pinkdramon.livejournal.com]

See if the gyno will let you get it tested both now & later on after maybe a few months to adjust to the new brand. Then you can see if one is better than the other :D

My hormone levels went back to a normal level after 3 months off the pill.

[anycah.livejournal.com]

That's a very good idea :) I should hope they get more to normal, though, as my new pill has about half the estrogen as my last one!