maybe fistula on labia

Hi. I am new as of this morning to HealingWell, but I've been reading posts here because I'm trying to get some answers. I am in my early 60s and a woman. I don't have insurance, but also I try to heal myself if possible with nutrients, etc. I get from the health food store. I have gone to a few clinics with a sliding fee scale. The diagnosis is that I have low estrogen causing the red, slightly bumping and stinging area in my right labia. I have finally started putting on the estrogen cream they want me to put on (starting a few days ago). But, I also have a cyst or blood blister or something just at the edge of the labia major and minor (if I'm understand this right from the internet). I tried pricking it with a sterilized needle and all I got was blood. Now that I've cut all the hair down there shorter, I an see, with a mirror, the area. The doctor didn't see the cyst or whatever because of the hair covering it. So, now I am trying to understand this myself because, and I might be wrong, the doctors at these clinics just think the easiest thing possible as their diagnosis.

I have now read that estrogen stimulates collagen production. I started taking collagen powder w/vit C last March and see that it has increased my tissues of arm, face, etc. So, I assume that older women (like me) need estrogen cream to stimulate collagen production. My body seems like a sponge, in a way. Maybe this is because of low collagen holding my tissues down there together. The estrogen cream applied in the vaginal area soon can be tasted in the back of my throat. How does it get there?

I have a rectoceal and cystoceal, so sagging of rectum and bladder. For a long time I've thought maybe I have a fistula. I wonder if that red, burning, slightly bumpy area in the right labia is a fistula. I have lack of control anally sometimes. When this poop runs out of me, I also have a water, light-brown discharge on my pad in the vaginal area. I wear a pad because I've had some urinary incontinence since my mid 20s.

Anyway, after I've used the estrogen cream for 3 weeks or so and the red area doesn't go away from the right labia, how can I convince the doctor at the clinic that I need to checked for a fistula. Are there special doctors that deal with fistulas?

I read last night that I should be taking zinc to clear up any infection. So, I've started that. I'm thinking of getting some diaper rash cream with zinc oxide. Maybe the estrogen cream IS the answer, but also, it doesn't make sense to me that the doctor at the clinic said I had a dry patch there in the labia caused by low estrogen. Does low estrogen cause dry patches? Or is this really a fistula?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Hi. I'm not sure if I have chrohns disease, but at one time several years ago a doctor thought I had IBS. I don't go to the doctor very often because I can't afford to do it very often. I had problems with my intestines, as far as constipation, forever, it seems. I used to get little pus-looking stuff in with my poop. But, I'm not getting that anymore since I've been drinking aloe vera juice. I had 2 colonoscopies around 2002 or 2003 and all they found was diverticulosis. It looks like I didn't spell either of those right.

I have been diagnosed with both a rectoceal and a cystoceal (spelling again??)

After your suggestion of looking for a gastroenterologist that could after a long-term payment, I'm thinking maybe I should do that. I will wait a while, though. That area in the labia that is red and stings and has a few small bumps around it, also has a tiny hole. I don't know if the hole is because the skin is torn or if it is a fistula. The somewhat nearby cyst or blood blister or something is not in that delicate skin of the labia, but right outside it.

I put the post in the crohns disease section because I had found other women with similar problems from a few years back with a fistula in the labia and it was related to crohns disease.

I bought some diaper cream with zinc today. I'm going to apply that and see if the zinc cream is healing. I'll continue applying the estrogen cream, too, as that doctor or nurse practitioner at the clinic told me to. But, if this doesn't improve I'll try to find a gastroenterologist.

Thank you for your response. I just want more information than I am able to get from both a gynecologist I had seen and then this clinic doctor. I just want to understand this.

Thank you. The gynecologist I was seeing last winter and spring didn't believe me and finally dropped me because I wrote to him and his staff that he didn't seem to have the patience to listen to me. There's another one I've seen now with a clinic. I am low income. I had pricked that thing after seeing her as she also wanted to convince me that I have no fistula. But 2 days ago a one millimeter size flat poop came out of me from the labia. I called their office.
She should call me back. She has not seen that blister/cyst thing because she couldn't see it. If I was really smart, I would have cut the pubic hair before seeing these doctors. I am generally healthy.
They see a 64 year old woman who rides a bike, so they think nothing can really be wrong with me other than low estrogen.
Anyway, I'll follow through. I also, don't want to have cancer. Thank you.