I found the excerpt and link below to be informative, although it remains to be seen whether or not I will implement these home remedies once I'm healed. I'm definitely all for natural remedies over medication.
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=34762Easy At-Home Methods to Rebalance the Vaginal PhMany women use non-medical methods for treating yeast, because the cost of over-the-counter methods is high, because they are unimpressed with OTC methods, or simply because they prefer more natural methods. Following is a partial list of at-home methods that may be helpful.
* Insert unpasteurized, plain yogurt with a small spoon or spatula or vaginal cream applicator. Insert at night and wear a pad. Repeat for three to seven nights, until symptoms disappear. Douching with yogurt and water can help, too. It also helps to eat a lot of yogurt.
o Katie recommends: Another option is to create a douche with water and yogurt and insert it via a squeeze bottle. Straight yogurt is painful for her.
* "Paint" the vagina, cervix (you'll need a speculum) and vulva (outside area including the labia or "lips" of vagina) with gentian violet. It stains so you'll want to wear a pad. This usually works after one treatment.
* Insert a garlic suppository. Carefully peel one clove of garlic. Wrap in gauze and insert into the vagina. Leave in for up to twelve hours. Repeat as necessary. It also helps to eat a lot of garlic.
* Drink cranberry juice. Unsweetened is best.
* Insert Potassium Sorbate. This is used in home beer-making and can be found at wine-making stores. Dip a cotton tampon into a 3% solution (15 grams of Potassium Sorbate in one pint of water) and insert into the vagina at night. Remove in the morning.
* Drink or eat Acidophilus. It's available in powder or capsules in health food stores or found in some milk and yogurt products. (Read the label; some dairy products have added acidophilus.)
Post Merge: June 06, 2009, 09:47:14 PM
Reuters Health Stories
Clinical
Microflora of neovagina in transsexual women lacking in Lactobacilli
by Martha Kerr
Last Updated: 2009-06-05 16:32:15 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Belgian investigators report in the current online issue of BioMed Central (BMC)'s Microbiology that the neovagina of male-to-female transsexuals, constructed from penile skin, is largely populated by "a mixed microflora of aerobe and anaerobe species usually found either on the skin, in the intestinal microflora or in a bacterial vaginosis microflora."
In 50 transsexual women with neovaginas constructed from inverted penile skin flaps, the investigators analyzed the vaginal microflora and attempted to correlate its composition with various patient characteristics, such as sexual orientation, the incidence of vaginal irritation, and malodorous vaginal discharge.
"Based on Gram stain the majority of smears revealed a mixed microflora that had some similarity with bacterial vaginosis microflora and that contained various amounts of cocci, polymorphous Gram-negative and Gram-positive rods...sometimes even with spirochetes. Candida cells were not seen in any of the smears," Dr. Steven Weyers and colleagues at the University of Ghent report.
The most common species were Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus anginosus subspecies and Enterococcus faecalis.
When cultured isolates from 30 of the women were analyzed by tDNA-PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, lactobacilli were found in only one woman. For all 50 women, the mean neovaginal pH was 5.8, compared to the typical pH range of 3.8-4.5 in a natural vagina, which the Belgian team notes is the result "primarily from lactic acid production by the resident lactobacilli."
The microflora in the neovagina is similar to that of premenarchal girls and lacks Lactobacillus organisms typical of healthy adult biologic women, the investigators say.
"A lot of vital cellular material is accumulating in this skin-lined neovagina due to the absence of a natural vaginal 'flow,' which in fact cleans the biological vagina," Dr. Weyers commented in an interview with Reuters Health.
"This neovagina cannot be compared to a biological vagina... It will always stay a skin-lined vagina which harbors a mix of various bacteria. Therefore it should be treated as skin. Local hygiene is probably the most important factor contributing to complaints of irritation and discharge... Further study is necessary to find out ways to overcome this problem."
BMC Microbiol 2009.
