I have had maybe 5 or 6 Bartholin Cysts over probably the past 5 years. The first time I did not know what it was and just called it a "zit" and was able to pop it just by squeezing as is described in another post here. The second time it happened I did some searching and found out what it was called and have since been able to do the same thing of bursting them on my own through just sitting in the hot water and squeezing them. When I say burst I mean just burst inside, not coming to a head or draining or anything. They had been pea-size or smaller until this last one.

This past time though I developed one on New Years Eve and when I tried my previous method of sitting in a few inches of hot water and applying pressure to pop it I could not get it to go and it continued swelling resulting in a bigger one than I have had any time before. It was not big compared to some but you guys know that pretty much any size can be pretty painful! I would say a marble size with swelling where my previous ones had all been pea-sized or less so much bigger than I was used to. I suffered through the evening trying the hot water or hot compresses every hour or two and trying to pop it but it just seemed like it was getting more irritated.

The next day I thought I would try "Pheobe's method" so I sent the hubby out for the ingredients. I did as instructed and used cotton balls kept in place by wearing a pad and left them on for an hour. I waited about 4 hours with nothing and then tried another batch with still no results.

I really did not want to go under the knife for this thing so I decided to give it a week and if I couldn't get it to go away by then I would go to the dr. Since I work from home and it's not a life-threatening thing I figured this was okay thinking.

So with everything the same on the 3rd day I decided to try some other methods. I found on the LiveStrong website that it recommends bergamot, chamomile, lavender and tea tree for cysts so I figured why not. I didn't have the bergamot but I had chamomile tea, the tea tree oil from trying Pheobe's method and also some lavender essential oil.

So I heated up some water (less than you would for a whole cup of tea just to make it a little stronger) and let the chamomile tea bag steep, added a few drops of lavender and tea tree oil and then waited until the brew was cool enough and then I used 2 cotton balls again and put them on the effected side and used a pad again to hold them in place and to catch my liquid. I left them on for an hour. I did this twice that day waiting several hours in between.

In between using the tea-brew with the cotton balls I also added a drop of lavender essential oil to a little bit of this all-natural "body butter" that I have which is made mostly from shea butter and coconut oil. So I mixed up the drop of essential oil with just a little of the body butter in a small container and I applied that to the effected side in between using the chamomile soaked cotton balls.

By the time I went to put the chamomile mixture on for the second time the swelling had already started to go down and the lump inside was smaller! I went ahead with the 2nd application and then used the body butter afterwards. By the time I went to bed that evening the swelling was almost completely gone and the lump inside was not very firm or tender.

The 4th day (yesterday) when I woke up it was nearly back to normal but I still did a 3rd round with the chamomile and then applying the lavender body butter just to be safe. I even wore jeans after several days of loose track pants!

Today everything is back to being nice and symmetrical (yay) and I can't find any sign of a lump at all.

Now I know that some people are concerned about tea tree oil so I wanted to state that the type I used is a 20% dilution. It's "Desert Essence Kinder To Skin Tea Tree Oil" so it's not the full strength. The chamomile tea I used was Yogi brand and the lavender essential oil is 100% pure made by PlantLife. The body butter is unscented by Bubble & Bee.

I would be curious to know your experience if you do try this same method that worked for me. I would use caution if you are to the point of having abscess or anything like that as I'm not sure about essential oils on broken skin so please do be careful. This method worked for me when Pheobe's method did not but that does not mean it would work for everyone. Just something else to try before going under the knife and it saved me from going in that direction.