QuestionHi Doctor
I am female 28 years old, i first want to say that I have only had 2 sexual partners in my whole life, so I am not promiscuous, my boyfriend (which I think that has never cheat) and I have been together for around one year and a half, the thing is that saturday night I started feeling extreme itching, vaginal discharge, a horrible burning sensation, spetially when I go to the bathroom, pee is something extremelly horrible and painfull, also I have swelling in my vagina, so today is monday and tomorrow tuesday I have an appointment with my gynecologist, I first though that I had a yeast infection, so I buy one diagnosis kit (the ones from vagisil) but the results were that the Ph in my vagina is very high, so I guess I don't have yeast infection. The thing that is scaring me is that when I get to the gynecologist tomorrow I think she is going to try to see what kind of infection I have and she will prescribe something, the problem is that mostly the results of those test take some time. I am worry that I would be having this symptoms for more time, it is horrible, and also, I am really scare because I have never had these kind of symptoms, I don't know if wait for any results may be life threating because I will be waisting time. Could this also be a urinary track infection? can I trust in those vagisil diagnostic kits? how should I approach the problem of the wait for the results with my gynecologist?
AnswerMost of the time the gynecologist will be able to make a diagnosis based on your exam plus a microscopic exam of vaginal secretions. Since you have a horrible burning along with painful urination, and the pH seems high for a yeast infection, you may have genital herpes. Genital herpes can be transmitted from a cold sore from your partner, or possibly transmitted on your hands after coming in contact with someone with a cold sore. I doubt that there is anything life threatening. You can get some relief in the meantime using some soaks with epsom salts.
