Two Cases: Pifang Xuedu Wan for Vaginal and Anal Itching
Pifang Xuedu Wan (Skin Blood-Toxin Pill) is a commonly used Chinese patent medicine in dermatology. It is very inexpensive, ranging from about ten to several dozen yuan per bottle, and patients can buy it directly from pharmacies. Manufacturers such as Tongrentang produce it; some factories also make a tablet form called Pifang Xuedu Pian.
Pifang Xuedu Wan contains Qiancao (madder root), Taoren (peach kernel), Jingjiesui (Schizonepeta spike), Shetui (snake slough), Chishao (red Paeonia root), Danggui (Angelica root), Baimaogen (cogongrass rhizome), Difuzi (Kochia fruit), Cang'erzi (Xanthium fruit), Dihuang (Rehmannia root), Lianqiao (forsythia fruit), Jinyinhua (honeysuckle), Kudiding (Corydalis herb), Tufuling (Glabrous Greenbrier rhizome), Huangbai (Phellodendron bark), Zaojiaoci (gleditsia spine), Jiegeng (Platycodon root), Yimucao (motherwort), Kuxingren (bitter apricot kernel), Fangfeng (Saposhnikovia root), Chifuling (red Poria), Baishao (white Paeonia root), Chantui (cicada slough), Niubangzi (burdock fruit), Mudanpi (moutan bark), Baixianpi (Dictamnus bark), Shudihuang (prepared Rehmannia root), Dahuang (rhubarb), Rendongteng (honeysuckle stem), Zicao (gromwell root), Tubeimu (Bolbostemma bulb), Chuanxiong (Sichuan lovage rhizome), Gancao (licorice root), Baizhi (Angelica dahurica root), Tiankuizi (semiaquilegia tuber), Zijingpi (Bauhinia bark), Jixueteng (Spatholobus stem), Fuping (duckweed), Honghua (safflower), etc.
Pifang Xuedu Wan clears blood and resolves toxins, reduces swelling and stops itching. It is indicated for rubella, warm rash, eczema, skin pruritus, freckles and acne, facial flushing, acne rosacea, sores and swellings, tinea pedis and scabies, dizziness, and dry bound stool caused by disharmony of the meridians and warm-heat with blood dryness.
The author has often recommended Pifang Xuedu Wan to dermatology patients, with some effect. It works fairly well for eczema, but is not obviously effective for eczema caused by COVID sequelae.
Last year the author saw an elderly female patient with vaginal itching diagnosed by Western medicine as vaginal leukoplakia. She had been treated for vaginal leukoplakia at a cost of tens of thousands of yuan, with no effect from various methods. The author suggested she try Pifang Xuedu Wan. After taking it, her symptoms improved rapidly; after continuing for several months she was completely cured, at a total cost of only two or three hundred yuan.
Another middle-aged office worker, accustomed to prolonged sitting, had anal itching worsened by heat, diagnosed as anal eczema. External medicines prescribed by Western doctors were ineffective. Based on the feature that itching worsened with heat, the author thought Pifang Xuedu Wan might help and suggested she buy a bottle from a pharmacy. On the very day she took it, the anal itching improved markedly; she no longer woke at night from the itching. Before she had even finished one bottle, the symptoms were completely gone.
The author has successfully used Pifang Xuedu Wan for vaginal and anal itching in only these two patients. He has not encountered many similar cases, so there are no large clinical data confirming the universal applicability of this drug for such diseases. Nonetheless, its efficacy in this condition was somewhat unexpected. Patients with similar problems may wish to try it.