Genito-urinary Infection in women.

GENITO-URINARY INFECTIONS IN WOMEN.

A surprising number of girls and women suffer from mild to moderate infection of the genital organs and / or bladder and urethra.

Many of the cases I come across have a rather chronic infection or a repeated one.
Surprising also, is the fact that most cases are usually treated with a rather powerful antibiotic, which controls the current infection, but doesn't really treat the problem.

I am a Pediatrician, so I get to see these cases 'laterally', never directly, as it were.During a consultation for her child, a mother often asks about her own problem. Some mothers ask if I would help out a girl or lady in her family, and so on.
If it's about a genito-urinary thing, I can hardly refuse, seeing that there are very few lady doctors in my vicinity!

So by default, as it were, I've learned that in such cases:
* It is necessary to look for and treat a concurrent vaginal infection, which is often the CAUSE of a urinary infection. This means that vaginal pessaries ( also called suppositories ) are needed, often on a long-term basis, for some days every month.
* Herbal medicines which contain some of the following : Sepia, Punarnava, Berberis, Sabal serrulata, Echinacea purpura, Cantharis, Butea frondosa ( and many others ) should be used concurrently with any allopathic treatment, for a quicker and better cure.
These medicines are available in a Homeopathy or Ayurveda store or pharmacy.

As an Illustration, I am describing this case which I saw in the summer of 2005:

Sarita bai, a 40+ lady and mother of two, who works as a maid in my neighbour's house, sought my help a couple of years ago.She had been suffering from bouts of painful and frequent urination for about a week.

Enquiry revealed that she had been getting this complaint off and on for the past one year. She was given a potent antibiotic every time by the Doctor at the local Government hospital. This would stop the complaint in a day or two, and she would be okay until her next bout of infection.
This time however, the antibiotic didn't work like usual and she came to me, asking what she should do.

Her urine showed plenty of pus cells. She also gave a history of a white discharge from her vagina, with a lot of itch.

I gave her a combination of Butea frondosa, Punarnava, Sepia and Berberis and told her to take the antibiotic for a few days more.I also asked her to use a vaginal pessary with Clotriamzole, metronidazole and an antiseptic in it.

She had never heard of vaginal pessaries before and I had to explain how to use them. She was astonished at the idea!

This confirmed my suspicion that many girls and women were quite unaware that this form of treatment existed. So I went down to our local college and carried out an informal survey by talking to first and second-year college girls. I found more than 75% of them hadn't heard of vaginal pessaries and out of some who had, a few thought they had to do with family planning!

Sarita bai's symptoms reduced the next day so I continued the same treatment, stopping the antibiotic after a few days.
She took the herbal formula for about a month.

When she gets a vaginal discharge or itch ( her husband is okay and has never had any symptoms - I got him examined too ), she uses the pessaries for a week or so.
Her urine is clear and she has not had urinary problems since then.

I would like to emphasise that pessaries often help tremendously in genito-urinary infections and so do many herbs! Also, many women in India are still not aware that an easy treatment for vaginal infections, in the form of pessaries, is available.

Allopathic doctors are aware of pessaries, no doubt but I feel a wider campaign of awareness is needed, including among doctors of non-allopathic disciplines.
Gynaecologists.....are you listening?

Dr. Jayashree Joshi, MD

www.farawaysister.com
(affordable Online Health Consultations)

www.herbaltradition.com
joshi@herbaltradition.com