We often play a game called ‘would you rather?’…. “Would you rather win a million pounds or have a house in the Bahamas”, that kind of thing....I’ll come back to this in a minute!
Nowadays we are all being encouraged to look after ourselves a bit more. We must eat healthily, lose weight, exercise, and keep our brains active, all so that we can live a longer and healthier life. This trend for looking after ourselves is the wellness trend. In most big chemist shops, there are hundreds of vitamins and probiotics and other products for women. Some shampoos promise amazing things for our hair, lipstick that plumps and shines…… an amazing array of products to make us feel better and look better – to be our best selves.
Essentially, it is a huge number of companies playing ‘would you rather’ with our wallets. Would you rather have nice hair or lovely lips? Would you rather smell nice or have soft skin? It is hard to afford it all, so we have to make a choice. The choice I am going to talk about is;
“Would you rather have a happy and comfortable vagina or concentrate on these other beauty choices?”
The Vagina is an amazing organ. It’s a big part of sex, it helps create life and it manages our monthly period amongst many other things but things can go wrong with your vagina quite often. Most women will have vaginal thrush at some time in their lives, often this can lead to recurrent thrush throughout the year. Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) is as common as thrush and messes up your sex life, it smells bad and can make you feel terrible.
Why do we get these problems?
Our vaginas are looked after by a team of microscopic helpers called the Vaginal Microbiome. These friendly microbes keep your vagina at a slightly acidic vaginal pH which makes it hard for infections to take over and survive. There are lots of things that you can do to make it less likely to get a vaginal infection:
Your Vaginal Wellness Routine
Wear underwear made from natural fabrics like cotton or Tencel. These allow your vulva to breathe, and they absorb any every-day vaginal discharge. Synthetic fabrics like nylon don’t allow moisture to escape and can trap heat and moisture making an ideal situation for bad microbes to thrive which may result in a smelly discharge.
Change your underwear daily. All vaginas at one time or another have some vaginal discharge. It is perfectly normal, and part of your natural cycle. It is a really good idea to change your underwear daily so that this vaginal discharge doesn’t hang around next to your vulva where after a while it might irritate or make a good environment for bad microbes.
Wear baggy pyjamas at night. Your vagina spends the whole day with pants right up against it – let it have a bit of breathing space.
DO NOT DOUCHE or use soap or shampoo in your vagina. Most of us have a particular smell, it is normal and good. Your vagina should not smell of flowers or strawberries! These deodorants and washing products kill your good microbes and allow the bad ones to grow. If you must wash down there, use a vaginal pH-balanced wipe as this won’t affect the vaginal microbiome.
Eat less sugar. We aren’t saying go on a diet or never eat cake, but a diet high in sugar has been shown to affect how often people get thrush. It might be a good idea to slow down on the pumpkin-spiced syrup lattes!
Take a Vaginal microbiome supplement. Changes in your stress levels, time of the month, or taking prescription antibiotics can all affect your vaginal balance which can let in the bad bacteria and yeasts that cause infection. You can take a microbiome supplement that contains specific good vaginal microbes which reach your vagina and influence your vaginal microbiome throughout your body’s monthly changes. Perfect V is a supplement for women that contains four of the microbes which naturally live in the vagina and protect it against infection.
This brings us back to “would you rather…..”
"Would you rather take some easy and inexpensive daily steps to look after your vagina OR struggle with vaginal infections which could have been avoided?"