Continuous BV

by Dana
(United States)

Q. I've been having continuous BV for the past few months now. What I've been taking to treat it is metronizole by mouth for the first few months that I've had it, and now taking metronizole gel vaginally. It goes away of course, then it seems that everytime I have sex, the infection comes back.

I don't now if I'm allergic to sex, semen? My husband used to finish inside of me, but not anymore. It helped the infection a little, but is still coming back. The antibiotics (metronizole) seems to work better than the metronizole gel, which is wayy more expensive than the antibiotics. I don't get it.

This BV is killing my nerves!!

A You're right on the button suspecting that sex is at the bottom of your continuous BV.

Bacterial vaginosis is NOT a sexual disease but because sexual activity can change the vaginal microflora, sex can act as a trigger for BV. The presence of semen raises the vaginal pH which can encourage the wrong type of bacteria to flourish.

As well, it is possible to be allergic to semen or even the soap that your husband uses.

I suspect that you have one or both of these things happening.

In a study done on yeast infection they discovered that saliva used in love making increased the likelihood of a woman getting vaginal yeast infection. Now as these things are all imbalances of the microflora I would suspect that saliva could increase the chance of getting BV too.

You can read more about that on Chronic Yeast Infections.

Try to ensure that you do not come in contact with semen or saliva at all during love making. Consider something like Fem Dophilus to reestablish the right bacteria down there.

Metronizole is good for getting rid of BV but unfortunately it leaves you vulnerable to it coming back. If it was me, I would be taking Fem Dophilus as I came off the Metronizole.

Good luck with it.