closed vagina on 8 yr old

[mrbkn]

When my daughter was 1 I was tending my sisters little girl and noticed that our girls looked VERY different. I told my husband that our little girl didn't have a vagina. He just laighed and said that all girls have them. I called ask a nurse and they gave me news no mother would ever want to hear. ( she will never have children and all that.) So I called the hospital and my Dr. happened to be there. He had me call first thing in the morning and get her in for him to see her. He pulled up her birth records and she was normal when she was born. They did ultrasounds and everything is there. So he sent us to a ped. obgyn and she put her on estegen. She opened up. We continued putting the cream on and she closed back up. This Dr. moved out of state and we found a new Dr.  She tried everything we would get her opened for a min. and then she would close back up. At the age of 4 she ws surgically opened up. That lasted about 3 months. They don't know what is causing her to do this we have had dermitlogists do allergy tests and no one seems to know.
We have taken her off the estregen because of health risks and are hoping when the time comes that her own body will kick in and open her up. I have heard of this happening but when they gave the cream it opened them and they were fine.
Has anyone heard of this?  I am worried now because if her own body doesn't kick in and she starts her period and the blood pools it can kill her.

[marriedlove]

This condition--known as labial adhesions--is apparently not all that uncommon among little girls.  We tend not to notice that it's developed at all once we're past the point of changing their diapers, because once they're potty changed, we don't really spend any time examining our children's private areas!  We discovered this problem because our daughter was having difficulty urinating.  She went *all* the time, but always felt like she needed to go again.  I figured it must be some sort of UTI, but it turned out to be labial adhesions.  A pox upon the nurse who scared the daylights out of you.  Sheesh!  A medical professional ought to know better.  The estrogen cream is generally only applied for a very short time to prevent side effects.  Do beware of pediatricians who want to have you apply the cream, the "open" your girl in their offices.  Can anyone say *OWWWWWWW*?  Don't you let 'em do that!  We certainly don't want our daughters associating pain with their sexual organs.  We ended up opting to see a specialist in gynecologic surgery, who separated the lips (the cream wasn't doing the trick) in a surgical setting.  There was some discomfort on that day, but it was readily alleviated with tylenol, ice packs, and urinating in the tub.  (Sounds weird, but the water carries the urine away from the sore edges of the labia, and prevents what would otherwise be painful burning.) By the next day, she had a bounce in her step, could finally really empty her bladder, and was happy all around.  For several weeks, we needed to apply a little bit of non-hormonal cream between her labia to prevent them begin to adhere again as they healed and "zipping" closed again.  (The doc suggested Neutrogena hand cream, unscented, and that worked perfectly.)  I took this opportunity to teach my daughter how to look at her own genitals, and how to care for them.  She applied the cream herself, and learned to take some time when bathing, going to the bathroom, etc. to have a look/feel and make sure everything was good.

If she's old enough to grasp what's up (and I do suggest explaining it if she is, even if you have to keep it all pretty simple), then this condition can actually become a good opportunity to help her be confident and unashamed about her body, and it's also a good time to clarify who can and can't have access to it, and why.

Hope all goes well.  Don't freak, but do be a good advocate for her, and insist on thoughtful and sensitive as well as medically sound treatment.

marriedlove

[mrbkn]

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad the surgery worked for your daughter. They tried mixing different creams and surgery and nothing keeps her open. It is nice to know that I am not the only parent going through this. Our Dr. made it out like it is very rare.
Thank You!

[marriedlove]

You are so welcome.  Drives me nuts that docs aren't just very straightforward about these things.  Sometimes, I think we need to move on down the road when our kids' pediatricians get past the usual stuff like ear infections.  In fact, if you haven't yet seen a pediatric urologist or gynecologist, I'd definitely suggest that.  If there is a good children's hospital in your area, you can call them, and they will either help you make an appointment with one of their specialists, or help you locate a person nearer home who has a subspeciality in working with kids.  In any case, expertise is what's wanted, I think.  That and some attention to the long term effects, here:  you *don't* want to send the message to your daughter that there is anything the least bit abnormal about her, or anything dangerous about this temporary condition.  It's simple mechanics, really--the labia minora are very sensitive, and when they get irritated they can adhere to each other as they heal, and that processes can become a cycle, with adhesions the end result.  It's plain silly to think of the thing as life-threatening.  Any competent doc should know better than that.  By the time your daughter is old enough to menstruate, the problem will, hopefully, be but a distant memory, but even if it were to last until then, the hormonal changes of pubescence would become a natural corrective.  Getting her period, for cryin' out loud, isn't going to kill her.

It's disheartening to discover how really clueless even those in the medical world can be about the female anatomy.  If I hear one more person refer to the entirety of the female genitalia as the "vagina," I believe that I shall scream!  We do our girls a great favor by teaching them the correct terms (i.e. vulva, labia minora, labia majora, clitoris, *and* vagina) for the various beautiful and miraculous pieces and parts of their bodies.

End of lecture, lol!

marriedlove

[lmroswell]

Marriedlove gave you great advice.  I would take all of the advice.  Years ago, our pediatrician tried to manually open the area up with a q-tip.  I could see it was not working and my daughter not responding in a positive way, and I asked that the procedure be stopped.  As far as the cream goes, call the pharmaceutical company and ask to speak to their drug expert(s) or pharmacist, and they can give you all kinds of information in regards to the long term use of the cream, in simple terms that you will understand.  From what I remember, but I could be wrong, is that the cream is not absorbed in a big way into your system.  But, I am not real clear on that.  I was glad that when we used it, we got positive results rather quickly.  All of this has reminded me to ask my daughter to take a look down there to see if she is still opened up, as I haven't seen that area in quite some time.  She wasn't too responsive to my query, but I am sure in a few days she will look.  I hope all is well down there.  As far as your daughter goes, the small pinhole where the urine comes out, is just that, very small.  And is not a part of the vaginal opening.  With my daughter, her adhesion in the vaginal area did not impact her ureathra (sp?) and the adhesion was not 100% percent, but pretty close.

[monkeyflower]

I just wanted to say how refreshing it was to read your post. So many parents are reluctant/afraid to teach kids anything about their bodies or sexuality - even the names of body parts are off limits for some folks. What a delight to read such an affirming, comfortable, and positive post.

[AndiJ78]

You are absolutely right!! We started teaching our oldest the actual names for his anatomy at an early age. When we got to testicle, he morphed it into "tescalish" 2 years later and he still refuses to use the right word! Anytime he says it I giggle a little on the inside.

Andi