Monica (Sudbury, Ma) on 07/25/2017

The first and last time I had a bartholin abscess was 7yrs ago. I didn't know what to do, so by the time I had gotten to the doctor it almost the size of a golf ball and I had to have it surgically drained.

This time I started feeling off over the weekend and woke up Monday in pain. In the shower I noticed a small marble shaped ball that was hard. It was already midday and I couldn't get to my OB until the next morning. I knew a sitz bath would help but as I researched the internet, I found many websites (including this one! ) that talked about tea tree oil. The cyst was rapidly growing so I was willing to try anything!

I took two sitz baths in a bucket in my shower. I had added about a tsp of the oil (4-5ml). I sat for about 10min once in the afternoon and once at night. I also did try a soaked cotton ball in the oil directly on the bump for about 20min. It does have a slight hot sensation but nothing compared to the pain of the cyst. Rinsing off and swabbing with some witch hazel on the area helped to soothe it. I wore a heating pad overnight to help with comfort and also took ibprophen thoughout the day.

The next day my cyst was about half the size! I saw my doctor who confirmed that tea tree oil has been known to have positive effects. He put me on 3 days of antibiotics to kill any infection and told me to keep doing the sitz Baths. I had to run errands in the afternoon so I put a soaked cotton ball down there with a pad. At 4p I checked it and it had shrunk even more and there was a discharge that had been released. So in just over 24hrs tea tree oil helped to break down my cyst. Amazing!