How do you control itching

Hi and welcome, Cinder,

Start doing the work of moving your bladder forward and in time you will feel more in control of your condition.

Itching is extremely common and likely hormonal in nature. Take a look at my article on lichen sclerosis in the Village library.

Wishing you well,

Christine

Cinder -- I think it's important that you have a natural lubricant to apply to the exposed skin. If you're not doing this already, you'll find it will make you a good deal more comfortable. I mix 2 tablespoon coconut oil (easy to find at the grocery or health food store), 1 tablespoon olive oil, and a 5/8" square chunk of beeswax (health food store) and melt them together in the microwave (don't overheat these, it doesn't take long for them to melt). Pour into a small jar. It will be solid when cool. Apply a little bit of this throughout the day. I keep a small amount in tiny plastic jars that I carry in my pocket and purse. To keep from getting any on my outer clothes, I wear a mini-pad which I insert between the layers of the double cotton crotch of my panties. I do this so that my skin is always touching cotton rather than the mini-pad which can irritate the skin. I soak my panties in Oxiclean when it's time to do laundry and it gets them very clean and ready to go again.

Keeping the area well lubricated will ease some of the discomfort. It also makes it possible for the bulge to slip back inside and stay inside as much as possible.

Best to you, and I hope you find some relief very soon.

Ellen

I followed a suggestion recently on the forum, and use probiotic (active) natural yoghurt, when needed. Using at night really seems to give me a good start for the next day. It's harder to organise and remember on a busy day, but when I do use it, I find that I am far less aware of the POP.

Hi Cinder

Following up on Christine's comment, I am fighting some sort of irritation at the moment that leaves a red, inflammed patch of skin that gets fissured, in my bum crack, halfway down my coccyx. I think there may be some fungal/yeast involvement, as I have had what I think is Prickly Heat a few times lately with our very humid hot weather. Also had itchy feet, and I have just realised that now my vagina and vulva feel prickly too. Not really likely to be Prickly Heat there!

I do have a red clover salve that I have made up with wool fat as a base. I normally use this on a patch of eczma on my palm. I tried it on my bum crack patch and it seems to be settling it down, after very little success with dilute vinegar wash and dabs of tea tree oil, which normally works. I am going to make up the balm that Elleninala described, so it is less tacky than the wool fat base. There are video instructions for making balm in Christine's Cottage kitchen.

Louise

instead of yogurt you can also try a good quality (but not enteric coated) probiotic capsule, put in up high at night. I started doing this with fabulous results. i found yogurt irritated me, but this doesn't at all.

I have LS and refuse to use E & T or clobestasol (which thinned my skin and caused lesions). I have found that using a simple homemade gel of slippery elm powder and water is incredibly soothing. It can be used on the vulva and in the vagina, and can also be mixed with yogurt. It is a little messy but worth it. I keep a little jar in the fridge.

Hi Cinder60

Go to the Library, click on Articles by Christine Kent, and you will find a link to Christine's article about red clover as an LS remedy. I don't have LS, but a pot of red clover tea daily has made a world of difference to my post-menopausal skin with its patches of dermatitis, and has improved vaginal dryness.

Re clover tea may be available in your health food store. It is often sold as a cancer remedy, mistakenly or not, so you might have to ask for it, rather than just picking it off the shelf. There are good reasons why it would be a cancer preventative. I now buy mine in bulk online.

Louise

Can you give a link for where you buy Red clover online. I think I will try and grow some in future. and i

Hi Gardengirl

I buy 1kg bags from www.naturalhealthdirectcom.au . I am not entirely happy with the product because it is very variable and some batches have a lot of foreign grasses in them, but they do have plenty of leaf and stalk, while other brands have more flowers, which do not have as much of the phytoestrogens as leaf and stalk. The most recent batch also had a piece of slate in it, and they haven't replied to my complaint. (Hilde Hemmes tea from the healthfoods shop is equivalent of $140/kg, and has more flowers in it.)

However, it is only $42/kg, and I am happy to dodge the grasses and chop up some of the stems. I will keep looking. I wish I could find a better one at a reasonable price.

I did look into growing it, but our area is too dry. It needs a lot of rainfall. it is a perennial or biennial, so it can theoretically spread and cross fertilise with other varieties of red clover. Many farmers don't like red clover because it causes infertility in ewes and malformed genitals in lambs when the pregnant ewes are grazing it green in early pregnancy. It is OK fed as hay, and wethers grow really well on it. You have to harvest it in early flowering. The phytoestrogen levels tail off quite quickly as soon as flowering starts, so it is a balancing act between getting as much dry matter as possible against too many flowers and lower levels of phytoestrogens. The old high oestrogen clovers are no longer available because the breeders have now bred low oestrogen varieties as fodder crops, so I am not even sure how much oestrogen is in the tea I buy. I don't even know where it is grown. I guess I would have to irrigate about 1/4 acre over summer to get a harvest the following spring. That would use an enormous amount of water, which is not a readily available commodity these days with water restrictions in place.

Louise

I was diagnosed with LS less than a week ago. I still can't get my head around it. Thanks for the advice.

Elleninala-thanks for your moisturiser balm recipe , I do same.. use bigger quantity but use glass containers, that I sterilise in the oven. How do you sterilise your plastic containers/or what do you do to clean them? never thought to put mini pad between crutch layers. The downside to using this balm was the stains left, so really appreciate your tips re: this, thanks!
Marigold-2...thanks also for your hint with the probiotic.
Not related to the area, but showing how we find out what works...I had a thick swollen corner of mouth 2 days ago very tender like pimple or maybe first cold sore....anyway I looked up some natural remedies after trying teatree and lavender oils the day before...I had a Vit.E capsule ,pierced that and squeezed onto and around the swollen area of lip, the soreness and tingle reduced almost immediately, and 24 hours later the swelling was almost gone and just the pimple head part .Roll on to nearly another day forward and that spot has reduced by half.Amazing results, my young adult son noticed!
Louise-try Ellenala's balm as that is same as I make, but I add 1-2 drops of lavender oil or another and recently gave a pot to a girlfriend with an extremely sore looking "crack" excuse expression. I don't normally go round looking there on others lol. Her very sweaty exercise and summertime aggravated that area.She found my balm gave her a lot of relief and helped her heal.I told her to wear an absorbent thick but soft pad in her pants.

Hi Courtney, sorry to hear that you are dealing with this. Have you read Christine's article on a Natural Remedy for Lichen Sclerosus?

Louise

I was wondering if the probiotic capsule keeps the ph in balance ? And how often does the trimo-san have to be used. I have no odor problems, just slight itch intermittently. I've had a Gall type Pessary for a month and all seems ok I can't even tell its there. My gyno wants me back every 3 months , she removes & cleans it and reinserts it. This could be a problem for the rest of my life, seeing I'm 66 yrs old, she said surgery might be an option. Hmmm.. she said at my age, everything has fallen and a hysterectomy wouldn't cause any further problems. I"m wondering all the time, what to do next. Do I go long term with pessary and every 3 months maintenance or get it all done with a hysterectomy. Have any 'seniors' had this experience and/or suggestions ?

Hi and welcome Plumpkin (love your name!)

Well, I think most of us here would agree that it is a popular myth that surgery will fix things right up for the long term. There is a lot of data to the contrary, although we meet the occasional woman who swears her mother did just fine after hysterectomy.

There are no pat answers regarding the pessary. Every woman must make that journey on her own and the data you receive along the way will help you decide what the next step should be. If you are retaining the pessary with no bleeding, odor or discomfort, I would say for now let your doctor manage it for you. If you sense mild discomfort, you might learn to take it out and reinsert it yourself so you can let your tissues rest and breathe for periods of time.

Trimo-san is formulated with a common pesticide, which may be problematic for the immune system over the long term. Here is an article I wrote some years ago on the subject. Any good, organic lubricant can be used for pessary insertion.

Take a good look at the forums, library and Village Post to begin to get an understanding of the Whole Woman work and why it is important to try to manage prolapse naturally.

Wishing you well,

Christine

Hi Plumpkin

I am sure you will get some responses from women who have had hysterectomy, and there are plenty of community forums out there for women who have had hysterectomy. If you are really considering it I would suggest you go to the HERS Foundation website, where you will find detailed descriptions of the procedure, questions to ask your doctor, and lists of possible complications, and observations women have made about symptoms that develop after hysterectomy. This is all in the interests of women being fully informed before consenting to the procedure, because it is often described as being routine, which we take to mean simple and of no consequence, which it clearly is not.

Every woman needs to make her own decisions, but unless you go looking you will not find all the information that you need to know, and find out what questions to ask, in order to be fully informed, should you go ahead.

Louise