I am 36. I just got out of the hospital after becoming septic (getting bacteria in my bloodstream) from the incision and drainage of my sixth bartholin's duct abscess. I have been hospitalized only twice in my life; both times for the same reason. This condition is absolutely as miserable as others on this forum have described.
When I got my first cyst in fall 2004, I completely freaked out. I discovered it while having sex. It hurt. There was a large lump in my vagina interfering with penetration. I went to the ER and the female doctor, fortunately, knew what it was. She offered to open it, but when I found out that meant she would cut me with a scalpel, I took myself and painful abscess home, untreated.
Spontaneous rupture involves living with the infection and pain until the abscess opens on its own and the stinky infection comes out. I have been through this three times. The lump will continue to grow and get more and more tender. Each time, just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, it would burst it's nasty contents. If you work in the home this is much easier than when faced with this happening at the office. For me, living with the pain of the lump is easier than living with the immune system response to the infection. I get so miserable with the infection that I can't function (feels like the flu with bone aches, etc), and this usually drives me to endure the scalpel once more.
This time after the incision and drainage I became septic and had to be hospitalized for intravenous antibiotics. The gyn who refused to place a word catheter, insists marsupialization is the best treatment, but a 5-15% recurrence rate is too much for me, thus I will not have it done.
Today, I am crying. I too feel the desperation and depression faced by others here. It is so frustrating to know that you can't control your own body. That diet, exercise, or hard work can't make a difference. Based on my reading elsewhere and on this forum, word catheters and marsupilization are temporary measures, and the more times we allow ourselves to be cut, the worse the outcome of future treatments will be, no matter what the treatment.
I am determined to have surgery, so have begun researching to find the latest and greatest technology and doctor to tackle this insidious problem once and for all. I am terrified. It is so nice to know I am not alone. No one around me understands. I am fortunate to have insurance. I can't imagine having to go through this without it.
Has anyone tried the lavender, juniper berry, chamomile, euchalyptus treatment that worked for an earlier poster to this forum?
I suggest you educated yourselves with this article, available online. I have found it very useful and carry a copy of it to every doctor I see about my condition:
Management of Bartholin's Duct Cyst and Gland Abscess
written by doctors Folashade, Simmons, and Hacker.