Ladies question/help post-radiation

Hi Vechis  I am so sorry you are having so much discomfort after your radiotherapy. My name is Chelle, and although my cancer is different to yours, I wanted to come and introduce myself as a community champ, and see if I could help you at all.

I have had radiotherapy for my lung sarcoma, and what I can tell you is that the radiation stays in your body for quite some time after the treatment has stopped. It builds up in your body over time, so you do feel worse, before you start to feel better. Radiation also damages the skin, and the skin area your vulva is very thin and delicate. The bleeding you have experienced may be due to the skin tearing, but I would suggest you contact your Macmillan nurse and mention this happening. 

I have seen on the community that similar discussions have been mentioned in the Womb (uterus) cancer forum  and the Cervical cancer forum where I found this thread that you may find helpful after-effects-from-radiotherapy

Please do contact your bowel cancer nurse for any worries you may have. They will be able to advice you for pain relief, creams etc. That is what they are there for, and they would rather you contacted them then suffer in silence. Wishing you all the best. 

Hi Vechis,

I completed 5 weeks of chemo/radiotherapy 4 weeks ago for rectal cancer and it is only this past week that my side effects/symptoms have subsided. I too suffered with yellow vaginal discharge and discomfort though not as severe as yours, along with a very sore bottom and rectum. The frequency and urgency to pee drove me nuts but it does all settle in time. I found drinking lots of water helped along with regular pain killers.

Don’t hesitate in contacting your team/help line as often as you need to, they are there to help at any time, especially if you have now noticed some changes I.e. blood.

Cheryl x

I had stage 4 anal cancer and Chemotherapy radiation and a colostomy no surgery. I recall th soreness and bleeding but can’t recall discharge- have you tried researching any particular Chemotherapy you had maybe it is specific to that? I remember they gave me a silver foam to pack on the perineal area have they offered anything like that I know anything with silver on is most healing after radiation and offers its own healing process which may help?? Have you had any help from the nurses or your surgeon? Surprisingy my surgeon was very holistic approaching and since it was during Covid he was unbelievable in his help advice and in the most simple things please ask them anything they’ve heard it see it dealt with it before and are a surprise in their knowledge of the stuff that does t actually involve surgery but the whole body as a holistic healing process please ask them it’s a often untapped resource of knowledge and worth informing of your symptoms not sure this is much help but it’s always worth an ask / ANYTHING is ALWAYS worth asking - take care xxxxxx 

Thank you! I’ve been in contact with the team. They prescribed me the regular treatment for yeast infection. 6 days of  insertable cream. Which was very painful to do. My last one will be tonight. They told me if continued to go to emergency gynecologist. I’m afraid not many have shared this symptom with them. My oncology team seemed surprised by the discharge. That’s why I ended up asking here.

Thank you for replying! It gives me some ease to know this happened to someone else as well. My oncology team did not make it seem familiar to them so I got worried. The prescribed cream to insert, just the regular yeast treatment. Pain has reduced but discharge continues. Thank you so much. I was getting super worried.

Thank you! I appreciate the resources and will look through them. My oncology team is aware of my issues. They have been compassionate and prescribed some meds. Tonight is my last. I was worried, it scared me and they did not make it seem like the discharge is a normal symptom happening. Perhaps few people have this.