Ladies, you know what it is like, we’ve been bombarded for years with messages that our intimate area is unclean, it smells and we’ll be social lepers if we don’t use the latest fragrant cleansing products.
Stroll down the feminine hygiene aisle in any store and be amazed at the range of douches, deodorants and scented sanitary products tempting you with an array of fragrances, packaged in soft colours. How can you resist?
Yes, your vagina smells. It’s supposed to! It has a natural mild musky odour and it is loaded with pheromones. These are the attraction chemicals that we do not consciously smell, it is your female way of shouting out “come and get me!”
If your vagina smells fishy or yeasty then you have a problem that no amount of douching and deodorizing is going to make go away, in fact you could be making it worse.
A healthy vagina is self cleaning. It is full of friendly bacteria that control the unfriendly yeasts and bad bacteria that cause problems such as Candida yeast infections. The main bacterium responsible for policing your vagina is a strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus – the friendly bacteria found in natural yoghurt.
Acidophilus controls and maintains a healthy vaginal environment in two important ways. It produces lactic acid which maintains the vaginas natural acidic pH balance and hydrogen peroxide which creates an aerobic environment that infection causing microbes do not like.
When these beneficial bacteria die off your vagina loses its naturally ability to fight off infection. There are many reasons why the balance would shift causing the good bacteria to die; these include using antibiotics, hormone changes, raises in heat, and contraceptives.
Cleansing products can also shift the delicate balance of good and bad microbes in your vagina.
But wait, aren’t they supposed to be cleaning and freshening?
Cleaning what exactly? Many women feel the need to douche after intercourse or menstruation. Douching and deodorising has been around for centuries and marketed since the 1920’s as a way to attain the ultimate in feminine charm and be as fresh as whatever flower is on the latest packaging.
What you are actually cleaning are the friendly bacteria that maintain a naturally healthy vagina.
Although women are becoming more educated there is still a multimillion industry promoting and producing feminine deodorants, wipes, sprays, douches, powders, washes, etc.
A healthy vagina does not need this junk! It is self cleaning and these synthetic chemical products do little more than irritate and kill off the friendly bacteria that stop infections.
So what do I use for cleaning my intimate areas? Water and mild unperfumed soap – that’s it; plain, simple, readily available, cheap and effective.
Fishy or yeasty smells are a sign that something is wrong. Bacterial vaginosis is an infection that causes a fish like odor whereas Candida albicans yeast infection can cause a yeasty smell. Masking with deodorants or douching to clean does not cure these infections it just masks the problem and can make it worse.
Each woman is different and it pays to know what is normal for you so you can readdress the natural balance in your body.
