Honey

So wonderful!! Thank you for giving us this update, Pauline!

Have you tried the baths with Epsom salts? I know salts may seem like a weird choice, but they are actually very soothing. At least they are for me!!

Would the honey work for premenopausal women too? I've always tended toward dryness during intercourse and I also have had history of yeast infections that took a long time to resolve. Now I'm dealing with a reddened and sore spot right underneath the clitoral hood. Almost like a crack, it's so sensitive. I'm not sure if it indicates yeast overgrowth or not because I don't have other symptoms. Would the DVD on vulva vag health benefit me? I'm vegan so I don't eat honey but I'd consider using it medicinally for my vag if it would help. It's kind of a chronic problem w me.

Yes, the vaginal vulva health DVD is very helpful. You should also read what Christine says about honey. Very eye opening stuff! We also have a lady on here that uses honey as a lubricant for sex, so it does have many benefits. Put it in the search box, you will get lots of hits.

Here is just one thread on the subject:

https://www.wholewoman.com/forum/node/5917

Towards the bottom Christine adds some very valuable information about the benefits of honey.

I too would like to thank you for sharing your success. Good 'ol honey, a remedy that Christine swears by (and she has the research and science to back it all up) and that many of us have used with great success and relief from discomfort. Thanks for the post! - Surviving

Pauline, I am not familiar with this applicator, but apparently you irritated your sensitive tissues this morning. When the prolapse is in the way, usually a bit of jiggling and firebreathing should move it forward enough to allow for gentle insertion of the honey. Or get down on hands and knees with butt in the air. Insert the honey in this position if necessary. Do you always need an applicator? - Surviving

You really don't need an applicator to apply honey, because all you need is a small dab on your finger, and then just run your finger up in there. If you can feel your prolapse, just rub a little on there too. Honey is very healing and should help relief that dryness over time as the natural lactobacilli start to feed on it and accumulate more in your vagina.

Sorry to hear that, Pauline. We shouldn't have to be fearful of our own bodies, that's for sure. I was also fearful in the beginning, and I did have a good feel around to see what I was dealing with, but don't really feel the necessity of doing that anymore. Learning to let go of the fear of prolapse is also part of this process.
Keep doing this work, and it will help you learn to let go of those fears.

GP reckons honey could introduce bugs!! Organic local honey ok? Have horror of hormone creams!

Yes, heather, they are called lactobacilli and they should be living and thriving in your vagina and your intestines. The honey feeds them so they can multiply and create a healthy environment in your body. What's so wrong with that!?!

By the way, my own mom switched from that nasty expensive, really bad for you hormone cream to honey. She only has to apply it a couple times a week and she loves the results.

You have brought this up before. When are you just going to give it a try?

Local raw honey.

p.s. Your doctor can't make any money off you if you are using something as simple as honey. Gosh, what a shame!!

I get it Aging Gracefully. Thanks for the push in the right direction!

How often do you ladies insert the honey? Is it a daily thing or do you just go by how you feel? Still curious. Haven't tried it yet.

If I'm not mistaken, when Christine's symptoms were the worst, a minimum of once daily worked for her. I'm sure any amount is fine, whatever keeps you feeling the best - Surviving

Yes, I would say to use it as you think you need it.
If you are younger and premenopausal, your dryness is more than likely from the temporary hormonal shifts you are going through, so you probably won't need to do it as much
Like I said with my mom who is 70ish, she only has to do it twice a week, and says that's all she needs.
I used it early on when I first found my prolapse when I was having some burning and discomfort. The burning went away almost immediately! Everyone is different, of course.

Glad to hear, Pauline!

Hello
I read with interest the discussion about using honey and also epsom salts baths to help heal lichen sclerosus. Having been diagnosed with lichen sclerosus by a vulval dermatologist 2 years ago and being a longtime WholeWoman devotee (managing my own cystocele and rectocele with the help of brilliant Teacher/Practitioner, Lindy Roy here in the UK) - I have found that regular epsom salts baths (I have 3 per week - using a generous cup of salts to a bath tub) provide immediate, and lasting relief, for me, from the unbearable - especially nightime - itchiness both in the vulva and around the anus, that often come with lichen sclerosus. I also use raw local honey daily - both inside the vagina, allowing some to spread over the vulva - and around the anus. As one person already posted, when using thick, raw honey it is a paste and relatively easy to use. I would thoroughly recommend it. Adding a few drops of lavendar essential oil to the bath can aid the healing of any irritated skin, I find. I hope this is helpful.

I love this post, view from the hill. I wouldn't go without my Epsom salt baths, they are so healing and relaxing. And, we all know that honey is nature's little secret that really needs to be known much more out there.

Me...again. We heat primarily with wood heat (I love wood heat; and we have some wonderful stoves).

But, when we leave to go to town/hike, or bank down the living room stove when we retire to sleep .... it get's very cool (50 degrees, even lower).

So, at times, my coconut oil, olive oil and honey are not soft; same with Shea butter and jobo jobo for my hair/body. The honey forms some crystals in it (proving to not be comfortable when it is that way). If I remember in the evening, I stick the bottles under the foot of the parlor stove to get them liquefied better, for my evening application.

Yesterday, a thought hit me .... maybe to try a candle warmer base (haven't opened the package yet).
Do you think that might work? Any other ideas?

Will re-heating the honey over and over, under the stove base compromise the bugs/effectiveness? [I'm not eating it, so not worried about loss of nutrition]

I was told by the lady at my health food store to run the jar of honey under warm water to get it back to its liquid form.
I have no idea if continually reheating it changes the quality. Good question.

Thank you! Silly me, I forgot about doing that!

Now, if I can be sneaky about running the water. My hubby is conscious of our well pump going on and always wants to investigate why. And we had a drought this Summer ... so we're both more aware now. Plus, we strive to be good Earth inhabitants/stewards.

Your thought brings up that I could put the jars in a container and after heating up the tea pot, let it cool a bit and then pour water in. I'll maybe play with the candle warmer (oops, using electricity) I'll see if it heats up too much .... surely, they don't melt the candle?!!?

[sorry for all my words .... just cannot seem to be concise.....always add unneeded stuff - grrh]

U r lovely as u r! Wish I could come and have a chat and laugh with u as u sound very human and such fun! Hope the honey helps ,I would not be without mine and I eat it too! I wonder if u even might have your own bees! Good luck with all your projects ,the whole woman journey will prob b your most successful :))

Dear back in time,
Just scrape a small amount of each oil/honey you use from the jars with a heated spoon and that will save time, heat and putting the whole amount in the jars in hot water each time. If it is too hard, take out enough for a few days at a time, from the whole heated jar/s & you could store it in smaller containers.

All the best,
Aussie Soul Sister

everhopeful ... thank you! U are Sweet and kind! I feel like I got a bear hug. The honey is helping -- yes! We do have bees on our property -- they are free and wild. Their favorite plant/tree to harvest from is English Ivy...next the big Chestnut Tree. [we've wondered what that honey would be like] We've been thinking of learning how to be bee people! They swarmed 3 times this last Summer (and some of them set up colony in our pump house! we are going to try to figure out if we can let them set up home there....we don't want any of them to get hurt. Nor, us.

Aussie Soul Sister - thank you! Great ideas!! I'll give it a go! Never ever thought of a heated spoon. :)

[if any one could see me this a.m., it would have been funny/strange. I had out a tiny Japanese sauce plate (don't know what to call them) and I was sticking my finger into each baby food jar that I cleaned/stored after empty and had previously called them into duty for the honey and coconut oil.
So, I was scooping out cold/stiff, small finger tip amounts and "kneading" them on the teenie tiny plate, trying to mix them together -- with them mainly sticking to my finger. Already dressed and spouse and dogs wanting to go (but I wanted to grease up and I forgot earlier). Short on time and lower clothes pulled down, chasing the cold honey/oil around the tiny plate, kneading. Hurrying to head out and hike....so just took the glop and put it in. [a vision that I would have NEVER imagined I would be doing!] But, we bend and flex and adjust to what comes our way ... well, I am trying. Hope that I am wiser in the future .... and I will be: no more surgeries and better posture.

Surviving60 - thank you! -- for telling me how to post in the right Forums. After reading your how-to-do it post, I think I got my next couple posts in the correct Forum. I tried to go back and say thanks in a post under your instructions ----- but I can't find it. So, I will say thank you right here. :)
* * * If I've not replied to any one, it's because I can't get back to it. * * *

If you click on your own name and then track, you will find all the places you posted.

Okay and thanks Aging gracefully!