★★★★★
For the entire summer, I had a very bad case of BV. I went to the doctor, he gave me a strong antibiotic which I never used, treated it myself and here's how I did it.
At first I tried ACV soaked tampon as its my favorite natural remedy....did not work. I tried soaking a tampon in Hydrogen peroxide and that whole method, did not work. When I was at the doctor I told him of some of the natural remedies I was reading about and he suggested never wearing a tampon for any reason as every time you take out a tampon, it strips your vaginal canal of all the good bacteria in there!
Although I never douched it my life, I decided to give the hydrogen peroxide douche remedy a shot. I bought 4 generic douches (not scented, just the regular), emptied a bottle, filled it halfway with hydrogen peroxide, and cracked open a good women's probiotic, poured it right in the bottle. Topped it off with filtered water. I then used the douche in the shower, making sure to hold in the mixture as long as I could, then letting it flow out naturally. Morning and night I did this douche for several days even if the smell seemed to have faded, finally cleared it up after about 2 weeks and I mean this BV was bad for a while....every time I'd squat or open my legs I could smell it...metallic, fishy odor. Doc also recommended using condoms and having my husband "pull out" during sex as to not affect the pH balance even more.
Due to reading many posts, I was also taking folate (not folic acid, folate) and popping garlic pills. Do NOT know if this helped as I take meds/vitamins/pills very sporadically, I can't help it I'm just bad at it (its why the birth control pill never really worked for me HAHA! ).
Here I am months later and now have my husband on a good men's probiotic as I realized since the first case of BV, whenever he doesn't "pull out"....smell starts coming back. If it does, I douche once with the hydrogen peroxide/probiotic/water mix and its all cleared up.
If you are hesitant about using the hydrogen peroxide, start with filtered water + probiotic to at least help get good bacteria up there to do it's job! Douches are Not what our mothers used. The part that gets inserted has holes on the side not the top, nothing is getting pushed up further towards the cervix. Using common sense and being in tune with your body to figure out dosages. Obviously if you've never used a douche before, do not go 100% hydrogen peroxide. Dilute it and work up to higher quantities until you are at about 50/50% water/hydrogen peroxide.
My favorite probiotic, that incidentally has cleared up uti's and helped with yeast infections can be purchased online and at most organic food stores. The brand I like has 24 strains with 100 Billion CFU and prebiotic inulin.
Hope this helps someone out there! And worry not ladies....as much as we notice the smell, many times our men don't. My husband did not and I had to point it out...still he didn't care ;)
