Vaginal Adhesion
At my daughters 9-month wellness appointment the pediatrician told us that she had a vaginal adhesion. This basically means that her vagina was closing up. It wasn’t a problem at this time but without taking care of it there could be problems for her later in life. My husband and I looked at him quizzically. The pediatrician then says, sex could be very painful for her, when she has sex. My husband pipes up with a statement about his daughter never having sex. Ha ha ha.
We were told that we had to get Neosporin and rub it straight down along the opening of her vagina every evening until it started opening back up. He showed us how to do it and my daughter screamed and screamed. I wasn’t looking forward to this. The pediatrician showed us that it had opened a bit from him doing it and we would have to come back in two weeks to see how it was progressing.
Each evening my husband and I would do our bath time routine with her and then had to add this before we put her diaper on her. I felt like we were molesting her. I hated it and she hated it. After two weeks we went back and he said it was back to normal and we didn’t need to do it anymore.
When she was about 15 months old she was touching herself down there quite a bit and complaining a lot. I figure I would take a look at her vaginal opening the next time I changed her diaper and, sure enough, it looked like it was closing up. Off to the doctor we went…
This time our usual pediatrician wasn’t available and we saw another one. As I had suspected, the vaginal adhsesion had returned and was pretty bad. We had to give urine samples to make sure that the closure hadn’t caused a Urinary Tract Infection. Luckily, it had not, but now we had to get prescription estrogen crème to put on her nightly. Again, torture for two weeks.
Interestingly enough, the second pediatrician that we saw said that there would be no effect on her later in life. According to this pediatrician, when girls go through puberty this basically works itself out. I told her what the other doctor had said and she actually left the room to go verify what she told me. Another pediatrician came in as well and they both said the same thing- this wouldn’t effect her later in life. That was frustrating because here you have two doctors saying one thing and one saying another.
Either way, the problem is fixed for now and I try to take a look about once a month to see if the adhesion has returned. So far it hasn’t and I hope, for all of our sakes, it doesn’t.
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Sorry you had to go through this and deal with different advice from doctors! I know how that goes, unfortunately.
This is an unusually common occurrence that is not often talked about. Both of my daughters had this when they were small.
The first was diagnosed at about a year with it but we were told there was no need to do anything about it unless it was blocking urine flow.
With my second (More recently) we were told this at her 3 month appointment. Thankfully, her doctor also said the same thing, that we needed to keep an eye on it but as long as it was not blocking urine flow there was no reason to bother it.
She advised us that it did normally work itself out and the hormone creams are not used as readily anymore because of the potential side effects. If urine flow starts becoming blocked there is much more of an issue obviously.
I have known moms that it did get to that point and they did have to do the creams and they felt the same. It’s hard to be in that position where you have to apply cream in such a sensitive area and I am sure it makes anyone feel a little squeamish.
You are doing the best for your little one though and she will appreciate you having to go through that experience for the sake of her little body!
Lexi has had the same thing since she was 9 or 12 months, but our pediatrician said we didn’t need to do anything about it besides watch for UTIs. She said we could do creams but the adhesion would just close again once you stop the cream. She’s been just fine for over half a year with it. She also said once she goes through puberty and starts making her own estrogen it will go away with no ill effects. It’s confusing and frustrating when you hear different things from different doctors, but I feel like my doctor’s explanation makes sense and that helps a little. Hopefully it’ll help you, too.
Oh, and if you take her in worried about a UTI, insist on them using the bag, not the catheter – we learned that the hard way (the catheter wouldn’t go in but sure did make her scream).
thanks for this, my daughters girl part has closed up and I’m waiting to hear from the doc on what to. This gives me a bit of a heads up of what to expect. Thank you for your honesty.
Thank you so much for writing this. I just found out my 9 month old has this and it breaks my heart. The dr. I saw (not my regular pediatrician) said to get KY and try to open it up like your first pediatrician said to do with Neosporin. I haven’t done anything yet because I am afraid I will hurt her!!! I am tears writing this because I didnt expect this and I dont want her growing up with problems if it never opens up on its own. I dont want her to get married and potentially have painful intercourse. I am starting to wonder if this is hereditary. Praying it is resolved before she is old enough to have “issues” from this.
Jessica,
I’m so sorry that you are having to go through this as well. It is not fun and my only comfort is that our daughters won’t remember this when they are older. My daughter is now almost 3 and we are seeing no issues from it. Although it is tough to have to rub a steroid cream (or whatever) on your daughter for a couple of weeks it will help the area re-open and you, hopefully, won’t have to do it again.
Jessica,
I feel your pain. My baby was diagnosed at 3 months with this, and we have tried putting an steroid cream on her. It works but unfortunately it closes every so often. I am always so scared that it is going to close on her, and that she may end up having UTIs. Her pediatrician initially told that if I put the cream for 2 weeks, it would be fine. She is now 18 months and it seems that I am putting the cream every other month or so… I am always debating between putting the cream or risk her having an infection.
My daughter is now 7 months old however she was diagnosed with this issue at 3 months old. At that time the doctor did a wait and see. At her six month checkup she still had it so he prescribed a steroidal cream. If at her 9 month checkup it hasn’t resolved itself he wants to send us to a pediatric surgeoun. I’m wondering if that is truly necessary. He said he could seperate it himself however he had a bad experience with a patient many years ago who after having done that experienced discomfort for years. I would like to avoid that with my baby. I’m unsure of what to do besides apply the cream as directed and wait and see.
My 23 months old daughter was just diagnosed with this as well. The pediatrician really did not make a big deal out of it when he told me. He said that we could use a cream on it, but that it would work itself out as she produced her own hormones. He also said that the only thing that oculd be a problem was if shew as getting UTIs. He acted like it was really not that big of a deal, which, of course, allowed me not to freak out. I am sorry some of you were told more upsetting things.
my 13 months old baby is also having vaginal adhesion.my heart breaks for her.why is she having this?how long shall i have to go through this unbearable pain?
Our 3 month old was just diagnosed with this today. She is our 3rd daughter, and I never once thought anything was wrong with her girl parts. She is 3 months old! This gave me some hope that it will get better!
Thanks, very well written and I’m going through the same thing with my 10 month old. I’m uncomfortable using hormone cream on her tiny little body : ( but I am terrified of a UTI. The pediatrician says it is getting so bad that it is starting to block her urethra.
hi my two year old got diagnosed with this at her two year check up….i was DEVASTATED to say the least..i thought it was something i did!! was i not wiping her well enough?? she’s pretty much potty trained so i never would have known of this condition if it wasnt for her check up…she goes potty on the toilet now so i just need to wipe not open her up and get gunk out of her front part…so with that said the doctor prescribed her a hormonal cream and said to use a qtip and apply pressure along the membrane and it should slowly start thinning out and eventually open up by itself…i too felt as if i was violating my child..i did the cream for about a week at bedtime..and i was by FORCE. which made me extremley unconfortable!! and to see her screaming that way just broke my heart!! since then i have stopped the cream application and just letting it ride out by itself…i’m afraid of traumatizing my child…i feel helpless at this poing!! im afraid i might havet to take her in to get opened up by a doctor!! does any one have any suggestions???