Vaginal lesion

[dgg]

Sorry in advance if this grosses anyone out but I wanted to see if anyone (women!) has experienced a paper-cut like lesion in the vaginal area. I have Crohn's and suffer from a peri-anal fistula and about 3 months ago started getting a cracked skin lesion near my labia area. It started out as dry, itchy white skin that then cracked and spread down. This all started right around the time that my remicade infusion was increased to 10 ml (from 5 ml) and to every 4 weeks (had been every 8 wks) and 6 MP was added. Not sure if this is a coincidence or not. My GI has not heard of this before.

I saw my ob-gyn who gave me a topical steroid cream and it healed up in 2 days. Then when I stopped the cream the cracking returns (this has been going on for 3 months). My ob-gyn took swabs and ruled out herpes or other viral issues so I'm not sure what this can be. A friend who is an ob-gyn told me it sounds like an autoimmune issue. I am going to a different gyno who supposedly has an expertise in vaginal infections but I'm wondering if there could be any lin to my Crohn's or any of the medications. Has anyone else heard of anything like this? Thanks in advance!

 

[Jennifer]

I used to get tiny fissure/tear type things like that in my teen years. Never found the cause. They would simply come and go and would be in between the inner and out labia, like right in the crease. Very uncomfortable. I used Neosporin on them. With Crohn's it can affect people outside the digestive tract (skin, eyes etc) so its possible that it could be immune/Crohn's related.

 

[agirl65]

I get these from time to time now, not too often. I had them bad when I was pregnant with my first child. Like you, the OBGYN ruled out any type of STD and just told me to put neosporin. It was quite painful as it was down both sides of the inner labia. (Sorry TMI). I've only had a small one as of recently. All of this was prior to my Crohn's diagnosis.

 

[Mama & Mac]

Hey ddg
I suffer from the same thing from time to time...... Has anyone checked you for vaginal fistulas???? This is the cause of mine..... Good luck and I will keep my fingers crossed for you in hopes its nothing.

 

[Blackbird]

I get these as well and they are painful! They are like paper cuts. I have been on Remicade for two years (now going off it) and these cuts started up about eight months ago. I told my gastroenterologist about them and asked how they could be related to the drug and he literally rolled his eyes at me. Seriously, I wanted to smack him.

 

[Mattannika]

dgg. I just found your post while thinking about writing basically the same myself. I just got diangnosed this past summer with severe Crohn's. I was too emberrassed to go see a doc when - what I know now was my first symptom - anal fissures appeared.
Since then I have had tests and more tests done, tried lots of alternative treatments (none of which worked) and while tapering donw on Prednisone and almost being off it after a slow slow taper, I flared back up. I had just tried an antibiotic with my GI who mentioned one side effect was yeast infections, which I had a history of. So right when I was done with the antibiotics, I noticed itchiness around my vulva, I didn't see anything, but it was annoying. A few days passed and I contacted my GI, thinking while she mentioned yeast infections, it just didn't seem like that was it. I know what they feel like and it was different! The GI told me to get an over-the-counter cream, that's it. And for the rest of the symptoms increased my Prednisone. Still, that burning/itchiness did not improve, so at my next appointment I literally had to force them to look at it to tell me if this was Crohn's related. Oh my, I felt so embarrassed, and they right away said. This does not look like a fistula, but that it looked painful (duh!) and that I needed to see a Gynocologist asap. This GI thought it may be a barthelen cyst and may need to be drained. My husband was in awe at how they treated me and researched and got scared! He was so awesome. The next morning we had an appointment at a great gynecologist, who said it is not a barthelen cyst. That was good news I guess. Sorry if this is gross and tmi, but here it goes: He said it looked like it had burst, there was no obvious puss from it. Since I literally jumped when he just slightly touched it, he said he would rather not do a biopsy or such. He said it would heal on its own and I'd just have to be patient...ok. He did say it was probably Crohn's related and that he wanted to see me again, so I will go back. I am currently out of the country for hoping to find some treatment that works for me in Europe. It has been one week and it has not gotten any better. I started doing sitzbaths and at this point I cannot tell if it'll help. At this point it has gotten almost worse I'd say. I cannot go to pee without feeling someone is cutting my private parts open and I have to bite a towel so that I don't scream, literally. I cannot believe that all of this is happening to me, I feel like there's nothing worse than your private's getting so beat up! I know this sounds awful, but I am sure you understand when I say, it is comforting to know I am not the only one with this "problem".
Please update on your situation! Is there anyone else out there with this issue???
Thanks and I hope you are much better by now!!

 

[Fosterfamily2303]

Wow I get these a lot and in the same spot. Glad to know I'm not alone!!

 

[vonmon]

I have had these symptoms over the years from time to time. It is possible that you could have of vaginal lichen sclerosis. It's a really sucky condition and there is really not much information out there on it. The best info I could find is a yahoo group that you have to join http://groups.yahoo.com/adultconf?dest=/group/LichenSclerosis/.
There is also lots of info in this forum.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/forum...ernative-treatments.html?order=oldest&page=43