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Immunosuppressants & Recurrent BV


Wed, August 06, 2025 1:54 PM

Female, age 30 - been struggling with recurring BV (bacterial vaginosis) for about 6 years, wondering if anyone else has dealt with this while taking immune suppressing medications? 

BV is an imbalance of natural bacteria/pH in the vagina which can cause pain, itching, discharge, and odor. When it's happening for me it's very self-esteem damaging. Physically uncomfortable all day, and at times others around me notice the smell. This impacts my sex life, work, exercise, sleep, social life, and more. I've had Crohns for 20+ years and been taking Remicade & Azathioprine for the last ~13 years – both meds are immunosuppressants. 

I've seen my PCP and gyno dozens of times for recurring BV and it feels hopeless at this point. For the first few years I was getting BV every 1-2 months. Every time the doctor prescribed Metronidazole (tried pill and gel). It did work, but only for a couple weeks. Each treatment was followed by a yeast infection, and more prescriptions to treat that....which led to another BV case. Same cycle of treatments over and over again, we did try Clindamycin once which caused pain for me. Years of these prescription meds led to a doc suggesting I use Boric Acid (OTC) at home as needed. This does help, but it's always temporary. 

It's very tough for me to narrow down what's causing this for me because there's so many risk factors: sex (1 partner), saliva, lube, tight clothing, sweat, IUD...I'm curious to know if having a lowered immune system may also be a factor in my flora getting unbalanced. I've talked to my GI doc about this too, but he didn't have any input on vaginal health. 

FPO crohnsoutside
Joined Aug 6, 2025

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