question: Hi I am a 42 year old mother of 4. I have been married and in a monogymous relationship for 18 years. I started having symptoms of what I thought were a yeast infection 4 months ago. Itching and burning around my vaginal opening all the way back to my rectum. My doctor called me in medications but it never went away. When I went in to see her she swabbed my vagina and said I had no yeast or sign of bacterial vaginosis.  She said I wasn't red or swollen and that I didn't have an STD.  She told me to go home and get rid of all known irritants for a week and come back.  My symptoms flare during and after sex and subside slowly,over the course of 4 or 5 days.  But they never go away fully. I always have a low level of itching and burning until I have intercourse and then my symptoms flare right back up and take days to subside again. I don't know what the Dr wants to check me for when I go back. She basically told me I have no symptoms. I know I am group b strep positive. We didn't talk about it because at the time I didn't know it was relevant. She was not my OB. Could group b strep be causing my symptoms? Would she have checked for that when she was looking for yeast and bacterial vaginosis under the microscope? Would that have shown up? I will definitely discuss it with her when I go back but I wanted to know if she already ruled group b out when she said there was"no sign of bacterial vaginosis." I can't imagine why I am so miserable, and I don't have any symptoms.  As far as irritants are concerned, she told me to not shave and see if I had changed soap or detergent or lubricant. I have not changed anything and I haven't shaved, but I'm not even hurting where I shave. I'm hurting where I sit and have sex. Occasionally we use Lubricant, but it has no perfumes or dyes or anything. And its the same brand we have used for 18 years. But just to be sure, we haven't used it this week and my symptoms are the same.  Any ideas? Could it be group b strep?