Pelvic radiation is an effective method to treat cancers in the pelvis. However, a major side effect is that radiation causes collateral damage to the surround tissues.
One of pelvic radiation-induced damages is vaginal atrophy, which is often a severe type that many of the conventional treatment products, like estrogen, have difficulties to provide relief. The reason is that this type of vaginal atrophy is not caused by estrogen reduction as seen in women after menopause. It is caused by physical injuries to the tissue by the radiation energy.
A similar tissue damage caused by physical energy is the sunburn injury to the skin cause by UV rays of the sun. The difference is that sunburn injuries are on the skin surface but the radiation caused injuries are deep inside the tissue. Because the injury is deep, it often takes a longer time to heal compared to the superficial injury of a sunburn.
There had been no preventive methods that can block the damage from radiation injuries.
Recently, using a mouse model, scientists discovered that sea buckthorn oil can help reduce and repair the tissue injuries caused by radiation. It works by reducing the radiation-induced tissue inflammation*.
Therefore, sea buckthorn oil can help you heal the vaginal atrophy caused by pelvic radiation.
NeuEve balm cream and Silk suppository both deliver sea buckthorn oil locally to the vaginal tissue. At the same time, taking sea buckthorn oil pills internally also helps you speed up the recovery.
We recommend the following products:
- NeuEve vulva balm cream (https://www.neueve.com/products/cream)
- NeuEve Silk suppository (https://www.neueve.com/products/silk)
- Sea buckthorn oil pills (https://www.neueve.com/products/sea-buckthorn)
For using the balm, you can start with a tiny little bit like 1/4 of a dime size to the external vulva. If you do not feel burning, you can increase the amount but not over a dime size. Over application may cause intolerance. You may find this article helpful:
https://help.neueve.com/kb/how-to-use-the-product/do-i-apply-the-cream-outside-or-inside-the-vagina
Silk suppository is mild and most women with radiation can tolerate it. However, if your atrophy is really severe, you may feel a little burning or irritation. If so, you can cut one suppository to two halves and use one half every other day. You can use a pair of scissors to cut it in the middle lengthwise. Refrigerate it first helps cutting. After using the half Silk for a few weeks, your atrophy will be partially relieved and you will be able to tolerate a whole suppository.
If you have used above 3 items for 1 month and you find good relief, your atrophy will be recovered soon and you can continue using these 3 items and will not need to try other things.
However, if you have used above 3 items for 1 month and you still do not find relief, your atrophy may be highly severe. You can continue using the above-listed 3 items and add dilation exercise to help speed up the recovery process ( https://www.neueve.com/pages/dilators).
You may find these articles helpful:
https://help.neueve.com/kb/how-it-works/how-does-dilation-exercise-help-relieve-vaginal-atrophy
https://help.neueve.com/kb/how-to-use-dilator-with-neueve/how-to-use-dilators-with-neueve
I hope that you will find relief soon.