Posted by PC Kes on December 4, 2003, at 18:23:02
Warning to girls taking any carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (this includes Topamax and Diamox), this class of drugs not only dries up saliva and tears, but it dries up vaginal secretions. You need to keep an eye on a gland in your vagina called the Bartholin gland, which lubricates your vaginal area. No one ever mentioned this gland before.
This gland, which we're generally unaware of, can plug up and abscess on these drugs. I was on both Topamax and Diamox for pseudotumor cerebri and got a big abscess in less than a couple months. It was not only painful, but required unpleasant surgery under general anesthesia because the abscess was big.
Plus Topamax managed to give me multiple kidney stones at a low dose of just 100 mg. per day in less than a month, despite downing nearly a gallon of water per day.
I've been off Diamox for about two weeks and am now weaning off Topamax slowly, and the only thing I'll miss is the weight loss.
Ladies keep an eye on any soreness in this area. See your doctor immediately if you feel a sense of pressure or pain around your anus or vagina. It took five or six days for my abscess to get close enough to the surface to be palpable from inside the vagina and by that time it was big.
Even the day before it was palpable my internist couldn't detect anything. But the next morning it was bigger than a golf ball and growing rapidly. However, I had a low-grade fever plus a sense of pressure at least six days prior and pain at least three to four days prior. So don't dismiss any discomfort even if you can't find a lump.
poster:PC Kes
thread:286613
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031202/msgs/286613.html