Seasonale to relieve Flare-ups?

[glowstrz]

Hi all...Lucily I use Elmiron which keeps my symptoms at bay for 100% of the time. During my week of PMS though I do get a flare up where I have urgency for days straight. It always goes away when my period is over. I talked to my gyno about trying Seasonale, the birth control where you get your period 4 times a year. She thinks it is a great idea and may very well help my flare up. My hope is that if I do not have PMS, then I wont have the flare. Has anyone tried this? Is anyone on it? Thanks!

[poetgirl]

I'm basically on the same regimen (although my doc put me on a continuous cycle of Ovcon-35) and it helped my vulvar vestibulitis and IC flares immensely. It used to be Flare City starting the week before my period all the way through until it was over. Now I don't really even bleed much at all -- just ocassional spotting during that one week period every 3 months, and definitely less PMS symptoms too. Last month I had very mild cramps for the first time that I can remember in a while -- not sure what brought those on -- but they were gone within a couple of hours. I can't imagine going back to regular periods .... ugh!

[glowstrz]

Wow...thats great! I hope I am so lucky =) How does you vulvar vestibulitis affect you?

[poetgirl]

Well, it doesn't affect me as much anymore, but I used to have terrible vulvar burning and rawness (the tissues were all red and inflamed) and would often have shooting pain up into my vagina. Needless to say, the inflammation also aggravated my urethra and bladder. Sex would make it even worse. (I still have to be careful about sex but at least I can have it and enjoy it again.) I was fortunate that I can telecommute part of the week, because there were many days where I was sitting on ice packs or taking baking soda sitz baths to relieve the discomfort.