Vaginitis suppositories

Vaginitis is one of the most common gynecological diseases caused by the activity of pathogenic microbes that provoke an inflammatory process affecting the entire mucous membrane of the vagina. In this article, we will try to dwell in more detail on medications, and more specifically, which suppositories for vaginitis can be used in various treatment protocols.

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Indications for the use of suppositories for vaginitis

Each medicine has its own area of effective work. There are also indications for the use of suppositories for vaginitis.

• The first and most priority area of work of drugs of this group is chronic vaginitis, the development of which is caused by anaerobic microflora (fungal, bacterial and mixed origin):
  • Bacterial vaginosis.
  • Recurrent form of the disease.
  • Non-specific vaginitis is an inflammatory process affecting the vaginal mucosa.
  • Mixed vaginitis.
• Restoration of damaged vaginal microflora.
• Vulvovaginitis is an inflammatory two-component disease that includes vulvitis and vaginitis.
• Cervicovaginitis is an inflammation of the vaginal mucosa and cervix.
• Cirvicitis is an inflammation of the cervix.
• Prevention of infection before surgery on one of the pelvic organs, before X-ray examination of the uterine cavity and/or urinary tract.
• Amebiasis.
• Giardiasis.
• Trichomoniasis of the genitourinary tract.

It is also worth noting the signs that indicate the likelihood of such a pathology:

• Increased vaginal discharge, which differs from the norm by increased volumes, an unpleasant odor and color.
• These discharges may be cloudy, mucous, and highly viscous.
• There may even be purulent discharge.
• Blood streaks are possible.
• A little less often, foamy discharge with an unpleasant smell of rotten fish may also occur, which is more typical for trichomonas vaginitis.
• Curdy whites indicate a fungal infection.
• The patient feels itching.
• Swelling and hyperemia of the external genitalia may be observed.
• Sexual intercourse may cause painful sensations.
• There are frequent cases when the primary pathology is accompanied by discomfort during urination, which is expressed by a burning sensation in this area, as well as pain symptoms in the lower abdomen or back.

A subfebrile temperature may appear. But this indicator occurs with vaginitis with deep damage to the vaginal walls.

Suppositories for atrophic vaginitis

The atrophic form of the disease in question is most often found in women during menopause, as it is directly related to its hormonal background, namely, to the deficiency of the female sex hormone estrogen. After a woman stops menstruating, the percentage of people suffering from this pathology increases. After seven to ten years, medical statistics indicate that 50% of women suffer; after more than ten years of experience, this figure increases to 73-75%.

Doctors distinguish two types of this pathology: postmenopausal atrophic vaginitis, and the one associated with artificial induction of menopause.

One of the methods of therapy for atrophic vaginitis is suppositories, as a local treatment prescribed by a gynecologist. More often, specialists tend to use local therapy. These are mainly suppositories: estriol, ovestin, ortho-gynest, estrocad.

Estriol suppository is administered intravaginally to the patient. It is advisable to use such suppositories in the evening, inserting them immediately before bedtime. The duration of therapy and the dosage of the active substance are determined by the attending physician individually, after undergoing an examination and establishing the full clinical picture of the disease.

The recommended dosage is one suppository daily for a month. After that, the dosage is reduced to one suppository twice a week.

Suppositories for bacterial vaginitis

Bacterial vaginitis often occurs against the background of antibiotic therapy, which have a systemic or local effect. This pathology is sometimes associated with a number of diseases. The development of the disease is provoked by pathogenic bacteria or infectious agents. Therefore, suppositories for bacterial vaginitis have a targeted suppressive effect on pathogenic microorganisms.

Suppositories with such action are more often used in the treatment of non-specific vaginitis caused by opportunistic microflora: fungi and/or bacteria. Mostly modern drugs have a dual effect, working both to suppress the innervation of fungi and bacteria at the same time, since gynecologists often have to diagnose a mixed bacterial-fungal type of pathology.

Recently, doctors have given preference to such drugs as ornidazole, terzhinan, metronidazole, polygynax, tinidazole, ginalgin teonitrozole. For preventive measures, pharmatex, patentex oval, contraceptin T are mainly used.

A combined drug with antibacterial and antifungal action, terzhinan - its effect is due to its composition:

• the antibiotic neomycin included in the drug.
• broad-spectrum antibacterial drug ternidazole.
• antifungal agent nystatin.
• an effective glucocorticoid, prednisolone, which allows you to get rid of unpleasant symptoms in the form of itching, burning, swelling of the external genitalia and pain in a short period of time.

Terzhinan is prescribed as one unit taken daily immediately before going to bed for ten days. If necessary, the attending specialist has the right to adjust the time of the treatment course.

Polygynax has similar pharmacodynamics. It also contains neomycin and nystatin. But it also contains dimethylpolysiloxane gel, which allows you to envelop the problem area, thereby increasing the effect of the drug. It relieves irritation, activates cellular metabolism of the vaginal walls, improving their permeability to the components of the drug. There is also an antibiotic polymyxin B, which provides a wider range of bacterial damage. The duration of therapy is on average 12 days.

Due to its low price and good efficiency, doctors often prescribe metronidazole, which is administered in a daily dosage of 0.5 to 2.0 g. The dosage of the course of treatment is usually from 2 to 7.5 g.

Release form

Medicines of this pharmacological group are presented on pharmacy shelves in various forms, but this article is about drugs, the release form of which is defined as vaginal suppositories, which have a different composition of active ingredients, but are united by similar pharmacodynamics.

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Pharmacodynamics

Getting to the site of pathological damage (vagina, uterine tissue, cervix and others), the drug of the pharmacological group under consideration lowers the pH level, which has risen above the norm due to the action of the invading microflora. The pharmacodynamics of active chemical compounds that form the basis of the drugs allows to normalize the microflora in the female organ: Lactobacillus gasseri and Lactobacillus acidophilus.

During the first 30 minutes of the drug's operation, the pH level can decrease on average from 6.8 units to 4.0. Further decrease occurs more slowly: over the next four hours, this figure can decrease by another 0.72.

The complex preparation mainly has antifungal (with targeted damage to parasitic fungi), anti-inflammatory, anti-infective, antibacterial (against gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms) effects.

Vaginal suppository preparations have the properties of enveloping the affected area, relieving irritation, and, accordingly, itching. Medicines of this group improve the course of trophic processes in the mucous membrane of the inner lining of the vagina, which significantly improves the processes of cellular nutrition. At the same time, the structure of the medicine allows it to penetrate even the smallest vaginal folds.

Drugs in this group allow you to locally raise the immune status of the body.

With a single or short-term administration, no progression of proliferative processes in the endometrium is observed, which makes it possible to do without additional progestogen treatment.

Mostly, the maximum concentration of active substances in the blood can be observed within an hour or two after administration into the body.

The drugs in this group are characterized by a high degree of binding to plasma proteins from 73 to 90%.

Pharmacokinetics

The pharmacokinetics of these drugs is determined by the fact that the penetration of the active chemical compound of the drug into the pathologically affected area occurs slowly, approximately 70% over four hours.

The main amount of the drug, unchanged or metabolized, is excreted from the patient's body in urine, and only a small portion is excreted in feces.

Names of suppositories for vaginitis

Pharmaceutical science does not stand still and today on the shelves of pharmacies you can find more and more drugs of various pharmacological directions and forms of release. The list of drugs taken to relieve the problem in question is also quite extensive. Let us recall only the most frequently used names of suppositories for vaginitis.

• Metronidazole is an antiprotozoal and antimicrobial drug.
• Polygynax is an antimicrobial and antiseptic agent used in gynecology.
• Dalacin is an antibiotic of the lincosamide group.
• Iodoxin is an antiseptic.
• Tiberal is a drug for the treatment of trichomoniasis, leishmaniasis, amebiasis and other protozoan infections.
• Betadine - used locally in the treatment of infectious lesions.
• Atrican is a remedy for combating trichomoniasis.
• Klion-D is an antiprotozoal, antibacterial, antifungal agent.
• Ginalgin is a drug with antibacterial, antiprotozoal and antifungal action for local use in gynecology.
• Terzhinan - complex antimicrobial agents.
• Hexicon, which, due to its low absorption, is approved for use even during pregnancy and lactation.

If candidal vaginitis is diagnosed, more targeted drugs may be prescribed:

• Medicines of the polyene group:
  • Nystatin.
  • Levorin.
  • Mycoheptin.
  • And others.
• Imidazole group drugs:
  • Clotrimazole.
  • Miconazole.

Method of administration and dosage

When prescribing a particular drug, the specialist proceeds from the clinical picture of the disease, the severity of pathological manifestations, the source that became the catalyst for the problem, the patient's health condition at the time of examination. Based on this, the method of administration and dosage of the drug is prescribed.

Vaginal suppositories for vaginitis are mainly inserted once a day, every day. The recommended time for the procedure is in the evening, just before going to bed.

The suppository is placed quite deep into the vagina. The insertion procedure is best performed in a supine position, with your knees slightly bent.

The duration of the course of therapy is strictly individual and largely depends on the severity of the pathology. The time period of treatment can vary from six days to two weeks. And in particularly severe cases, from several weeks to several months. If necessary, the course of therapy can be repeated. With this approach to stopping the disease, the effectiveness of treatment increases significantly.

If for any reason one or more doses of the drug are missed, then treatment should be continued with the usual dose and according to the same schedule.

Using suppositories for vaginitis during pregnancy

Treatment of the disease in question in a woman who is preparing to become a mother begins with the attending physician accurately determining the cause of the pathology and only then prescribing a therapy protocol. The use of suppositories for vaginitis during pregnancy is the most acceptable form of drugs that act locally, directly on the source of the disease. This form of treatment allows to minimize the likelihood of the negative impact of the chemical components of the drug on the course of pregnancy and embryo development.

Vaginal suppositories that the attending physician may prescribe to a pregnant woman include: Hexicon, Neo Penotran, Ginalgin, Klion, Pulsitex, Neo-Penotran Forte and a number of others. It is worth noting that drugs of this group should still be avoided in the first trimester of pregnancy. In the second and third trimesters, the drug of the pharmacology in question is prescribed only by the attending physician if the expected benefit to the mother's body exceeds the potential risk to the fetus.

During the period when a woman is breastfeeding her newborn baby, taking this medicine is quite acceptable. But for the duration of therapeutic treatment, breastfeeding should be stopped, and the child should be transferred to artificial feeding.

Contraindications to the use of suppositories for vaginitis

A medicinal product necessarily has one or more active chemical compounds as its basis, the properties of which determine the pharmacodynamics of the drug. They, being active drugs, can negatively affect neighboring organs and systems of the human body (with local application) or the entire body (with its systemic action). These substances determine contraindications to the use of suppositories for vaginitis:

• Individual intolerance to the components of the drug.
• The period of menstruation.
• First trimester of pregnancy.

Side effects of suppositories for vaginitis

No matter how safe the drugs are, almost all of them under certain conditions and the state of the patient's body can manifest themselves with accompanying negative symptoms. The drugs in question are usually well tolerated by the patient's body, but the side effects of suppositories for vaginitis can still manifest themselves:

• Itching.
• Burning in the area of the external genitalia.
• Irritation in the vagina.
• Activation of mucous secretions.
• Symptoms of an allergic reaction of the body to the administration of a drug.
• Allergic contact eczema.

If the patient experiences one or more of the symptoms listed above, or if facts appear that are not listed, she should immediately notify her attending physician, who, after analyzing the situation, will adjust the treatment.

Overdose

Overdose of the drug for the treatment of vaginitis, used in the form of vaginal suppositories, is quite ephemeral. But still, if such a fact is registered, it is necessary to conduct symptomatic therapy, which should be prescribed only by a qualified specialist.

In case of an allergic reaction of the body, antihistamines are prescribed.

In case of convulsions and tremors, sedatives are used, and in more severe cases, intravenous diazepam is used.

Interactions with other drugs

It is necessary to take any medicine very carefully in a monotherapy treatment protocol, but it is much more difficult to correctly prescribe a complex treatment with the appointment of two or more medications at the same time. Vaginitis suppositories, interactions with other drugs, are able to enhance mutual effectiveness, suppress it or "stick to neutrality."

In most cases, drugs of this pharmacokinetic group and form of administration are quite neutral in interaction with many drugs.

It is only necessary to remember that during the course of treatment you should refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages of any strength.

This issue has not been studied so thoroughly to date, and the monitoring results are quite few. But it is known that the drugs of the pharmacodynamics under consideration prolong the action of vecuronium bromide. It is also known that combined administration with a coumarin anticoagulant enhances the pharmacological properties of the latter.

Storage conditions

Depending on how correctly all storage conditions are met, the level of pharmacological effectiveness of the drug used depends, which is necessary throughout the entire period of the drug's operation permitted by the manufacturer. These recommendations are described in detail in the instructions attached to the drug. They are not complicated, but their strict implementation is simply necessary.

• The drug in the form under consideration must be kept in a cool place where the room temperature does not exceed +20 degrees throughout the entire period of permitted use.
• Vaginal suppositories should be kept out of the reach of small children.
• The medicinal product should not be exposed to direct sunlight, as this reduces its shelf life and reduces its pharmacodynamic activity.

Best before date

When releasing any medicine on pharmacy shelves, the manufacturer must indicate on its packaging: the date of manufacture of the drug and the final date after which it is undesirable to use the drug in question for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. Then the drug begins to lose its pharmacological characteristics, and, therefore, one should not expect high efficiency in stopping the disease from such a drug.

Such negligence can lead to a deterioration in the patient's condition and loss of precious time. The shelf life of a drug in this category varies from two to three years.

Poor ecology, the products that modern people eat, attitude to the rules of personal hygiene and other factors can provoke the development of many gynecological diseases. If a woman begins to feel discomfort in the area of the external genitalia, observes the appearance of more abundant uterine discharge, you should not delay going to the doctor - gynecologist. After all, everyone knows that the earlier the disease is diagnosed, the less effort and money will have to be applied to relieve the problem. But the most important thing is that in this case the patient's body will receive a smaller percentage of disorders and complications. Vaginitis suppositories, the list of which was discussed in this article, are the most popular in the treatment of the voiced pathology, since with high efficiency, having a local effect, drugs of this form of release have the least negative impact on other organs and systems of the human body. It is worth recalling that in case of discomfort, self-medication should not be engaged in self-medication, any pharmacological drugs should be prescribed by a qualified doctor. Self-medication can only lead to a worsening of the situation and a loss of time for timely medical care.