Amitriptyline vaginal cream

[mtnrunner]

My doctor recently gave me a prescription for a new, sort of "outside the IC box" treatment involving Amitriptyline in a vaginal cream. Has anyone else tried this?

I have done two applications and found them both to be pretty unpleasant. It seems to cause a lot of burning.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[leelee88]

Humm I have never heard of this, But being that I have Vulvodynia and I am so sensitive to creams I bet I would burn from it to. But it does sound interesting..

[Briza]

I remember seeing some posts about Elavil cream before, quite a while back. You could do an advanced search here on the board for Amitrip...Cream or probably better Elavil cream to see if you can find them. I would try the advanced search in both the Antidepressant forum and the vulvodynia forum, to narrow things down, rather than all the forums...that would make the results easier to sort thru. That will at least give you some info to read on others' experiences with it.
Other than lidocaine and clotrimazole (for yeast) and my preferred lubricant, just about every other cream or gel I've tried will cause me to burn. But taking elavil tabs 10 mg by mouth has helped me some with VV and vulvodynia and a lot for frequency and nocturia.
Best wishes :)
Bri

[dminton]

There's a whole article in the IC Association Update newsletter that I get in the mail about compounded creams for IC and VV. If you can somehow get ahold of a copy it was the Winter 2007/2008 issue. It's true that if a person has VV as I do, then a lot of things are going to burn. Maybe even if a person doesn't have it! I have a cream compounded with lots of things in it, but it's too strong and I get loopy from it. It's for my generalized VV. It does work, though, for VV temporarily.

[Tinkerbell23]

My dr just put me on this for my vulvodynia. i had a bad reaction to the pill form, it made me crazy. i havent started it yet because i am on a steriod cream for one week first. i had to special order it and luckily it was only $35 because my insurance didnt cover it. i am sorry you are having a bad time with it. i will let you know how it goes when i try it on thursday.

[Tinkerbell23]

Hey i tried the cream, its been 6 days now...it burned the first time, but not anymore. I guess its helping, i dont really know because i used the steriod first. Did yours come w/ any info? like possible side effects or anything? mine didnt and i am just wondering if there is anything i should look out for. please let me know if you can. thanks.

[mtnrunner]

Hey i tried the cream, its been 6 days now...it burned the first time, but not anymore. I guess its helping, i dont really know because i used the steriod first. Did yours come w/ any info? like possible side effects or anything? mine didnt and i am just wondering if there is anything i should look out for. please let me know if you can. thanks.

My cream didn't come with any info. I don't know anything about a steroid either. Did your doctor offer you one to use prior to the cream? When I applied the cream it put me in a horrible three-day flare with burning vulvadynia pain as well as general urethra burning. I tried two applications and I couldn't take any more. The burning lasted well after the cream was wiped away. I had a very unpleasant reaction. The only thing I found was somewhere on the web it talked about using the cream topically for other conditions in a clinical trial. One of the unpleasant side effects seemed to be a reddening and irritation of the skin. The idea of that happening on the most delicate of tissues would explain what was happening there.

Has anyone used this stuff with success yet? And what about blending it with another vehicle (like a gel). My doc seemed to think that compounding required the cream they used at my pharmacy as it wouldn't mix properly in something else. Anyone else heard this? I am interested in seeing if it works, but not willing to burn like that. It seems very contrary to me.

[Tinkerbell23]

i just started bleeding and i wonder if its from the cream, my dr doesnt think so though...

[dking2]

of 50 mg Elivil, Lidocaine, and Baclafen in a vaginal suppository. I don't know if it is making things worse or not. When I first started it I felt sort of numb which was good , but I have had vaginal bleeding twice. (I had a hysterectomy 5 years ago). I feel raw inside. The uro says that is impossible from the meds and is sending me to a gyno.I feel really dicourged right now.

[sully02]

I just went through my first case of vulvodynia. Wow!

I was being treated for 2 months for yeast because the difflucen seemed to help. It kept coming and going, the vulvodynia I mean. So I was given a compounded cream to numb it. It was something called CD/Quadri-caine
10/5/5/1% to cream. It worked really well at first but then it started getting worse until I was red and raw and my skin was peeling. I went back to my URO and the nurse who does research on IC said it was the worse she had ever seen! The URO Dr came and looked at it and shook his head and said I should go to my GYN. So I did and she found the bacterial infection and put me on steroid cream, antibiotic cream for inside and elavil for pain. All for 2 weeks straight. Today is the first day in a month I feel decent. I used the numbing compound and it still stung for the first 2 days but as soon as the infection starting getting better I did not need it as much. And now I don't have to use it at all. So I learned that sometimes it is not IC, a yeast infection or something I ate.

I was started at 10mg a night and can increase to 40 mg a night for pain. I know it is helping but am already on celexa and have gained about 15 lbs in the last year since my IC started. It took me 6 months of the Dr merry go round until I could get a diagnosis. I did not gain too much weight with the celexa but now I am gaining from too little movement and eating fattening foods like Vanilla ice cream. It seems to help me, really! I never used to eat donuts, cakes, etc. I ate all healthy foods like veggies and lots of fruit and since I can't eat so much of that I find that the crappy bakery stuff does not bother my IC at all. Now doesn't that just make your day! My point being, I am afraid that the elavil will make me gain more weight. I am at my all time high and have not weighed myself since the vulvodynia started and I was confined to bed and the couch not doing anything but eating and laying there.

I was and am still wondering if the compounded cream made it worse. After the 20 seconds of torture it did numb it.

I love this board.

Sully (Sandy)

[glassd18]

I use Lotrizone cream for constant vaginal itching. It's part steroid, part anti-yeast. It helps. I also used the regular cortizone cream from the pharmacy, and that helps too. I have not been diagnosed with VV, but it seems likely as the tests for yeast are always negative, and the area itches a lot of the time.

If it burns I don't use it. I have enough problems without dealing with a three day flare. I used something that burned me down there before, and I just can't tolerate it. The only thing that I think burns that is normal is estrogen cream when a woman doesn't have a lot of estrogen down there and she first uses it it can burn for a while because the tissue is dry, and irritated. Lack of estrogen can do this as well.

Hugs Di

[VCNJ84]

I was offered this cream at first to treat Vulvodynia, instead of Elavil pills. My doctor thought maybe I would want it, because sometimes there are less side effects. But after telling her how much pain my last experiences with creams caused me, we went with the pills. I am happy so far with choosing the pills. Let us know how it works out for you.

[Jenniebogs78]

I actually tried the cream. My urologist Dr. Robert Moldwin (he's great) suggested it. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to it and I ended up with what was like a yeast infection. I've heard some patients have great results. Good luck!

[Hannah13]

My doctor recently gave me a prescription for a new, sort of "outside the IC box" treatment involving Amitriptyline in a vaginal cream. Has anyone else tried this?

I have done two applications and found them both to be pretty unpleasant. It seems to cause a lot of burning.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Dr. Moldwin just gave me some to try for urethral burning and so far so good. Go figure.

Love, H.

[Hannah13]

Did your bleeding issue resolve?

[Goodnightmoon]

I take a lipoderm cream with 2% Amitriptylin and 2% Baclofen. It is great!!


It is called Ami-BAc-Cream and it is especially compounded for VV patients. However, it is not an easy product. My pharmacist tried it with a different base cream (PLO 20), and it burnt like hell.

So he went back to the original lipoderm base even though it is a little harder to work with and more expensive. But it is worth every penny!

[mouse]

Hmm what is the cream suppose to do. I use to take it in pill form and loved it...probably because it may me sleep, but then I had to stop taking it because after 8 months it caused severe urine retention:(

[Dakota]

I was just given this cream in addition to all my other meds so I was interested to see everyones opinion on it. Mine is amit/lido 2%/5% TD gel. I find I can't use it because it burns. I do think it is the lidocaine that's causing the burning. I should have known better because I'd already tried just lidocaine and it burned. I don't know if I should continue trying it or toss it in my big reject pile. Needless to say I'm very disappointed once again. Can't find anything soothing. Anyone on here have any other suggestions?

[bjwright]

it may be the Lido that's burning or the base they used to compound the meds into. Ask the pharmacist what he compounded your cream w/then talk to your doctor. Between the 3 of you, bet you'll figure out how to go forward. Good wishes!