Summary-line: 2-May wilcox@cis.ohio-state.edu #Re: female genital pain *** EOOH *** Return-Path: Date: Thu, 2 May 91 21:57:30 -0400 From: Patricia P Wilcox To: immune@weber.ucsd.edu, mfoley@arisia.Xerox.COM Subject: Re: female genital pain Cc: wilcox@cis.ohio-state.edu OK, here are a couple of ideas and/or questions. Is the vaginal area red and raw, like a sore throat, or not? If yes, then I've had pain like that due to all of the following: wearing anything other than 100% cotton underwear, wearing underwear washed in enzyme or perfumed laundry detergents, using perfumed bath soap, and having sex -- I am apparently hypersensitive to testosterone or something else in my husband's semen. Other people have told me about being hypersensitive to the lubricant or the rubber in condoms. I also have what I believe is Sjogren's Syndrome, a variant of lupus which includes "sicca", or dryness of eyes, vagina, etc. due to auto- immune attack on fluid ducts. There is a string of pinhead-sized lumps along the labia minora, which are the plugged ducts. Some of this autoimmune garbage can be set off by various antibiotics, especially vaginal antibiotic creams. My own personal downfall may have been AVC cream, which caused horrible swelling, redness, itching... I'm also terribly sensitive to Cerumenex ear drops. AVC cream and Cerumenex both contain triethanolamine, which may be the actual culprit, I'm not sure. Stay clear away from scented tampons and scented sanitary napkins. Also, do not use scented or dyed toilet paper! One neighbor, whi is (who is) a nurse and shares a lot of my chemical hypersensitivity problems, was suffering from cracked and bleeding skin in the anal area which disappeared completely when I brought her a big package of white unscented toilet paper. (The stuff she was using was a delicate yellow and didn't have much of a scent, but it was pure poison for her.) If all of this seems completely off-base, let me know, and maybe I can come up with some alternative explanation (or guess)... I'm learning much more than I ever wanted to know about weird autoimmune problems. Hope you get this thing figured out soon! --Pat Wilcox (wilcox@cis.ohio-state.edu)