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Christa Elza: [00:00:00] It's like a self cleaning oven, which I find fascinating. You really should not be douching or anything like that because the body is perfect master of how to keep a balance of what bacteria should or should not be in there. the discharge should never have a foul odor to it, ever. The odor may change slightly, but if it's a foul odor that you just are like, what in the world is this? you want to get tested for a bacterial infection, for sure.
Sheree: If anything, they're going to make matters worse So it is really important that we are keeping it fragrance free down there We are you know wiping front to back. We're making sure that we aren't bringing in any of those kind of external chemicals into that area.
They don't actually know that they have the BV and if this is left untreated, it can lead to a variety of issues as well. So you've got like increased pelvic inflammation, preterm births, miscarriages, and even susceptibility to other STIs.
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Sheree: Today, we are going to discuss something that has had some new evidence brought to light and rest assured, I think females might be able to feel a little bit more empowered with this information considering that what we're about to discuss does actually affect One third of women in the reproductive ages.
let's dive into talking about bacterial vaginosis, right? Straight into it. If you haven't heard of this before, BV is a bacterial infection that occurs in the vagina. It quite often is linked to the fishy smell or the fishy odor. And a lot of the time, or, up until this point, what we really have thought or understood is that This is just something to do with your pH balance as a woman being off and that's what's causing this recurring infection.
What some recent research has actually showed is that there a responsibility that needs to be taken by our male counterparts now [00:02:00] And that they can actually be transmitting this through us because there is that change of bacteria you think when you are having And of course, or you are having relations in that way, that bacteria is going to have the ability to switch over or cross contaminate, I and we're now looking at BV as potentially being labeled as something called asexually transmitted infection. So, we may need to treat it as such.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I think it's definitely something that most women have experienced at some point in their life. I think it's interesting to point out that bacterial vaginosis is really, it's the vagina itself is pretty interesting.
It's like a self cleaning oven, which I find fascinating. That you really don't have to, you really should not be douching or anything like that because the body is the perfect master of how to keep a balance of what bacteria should or should not be in there. And times and things that can change the pH in the vaginal canal could definitely change [00:03:00] the growth of certain bacteria that can lead to what you know is bacterial vaginosis, which is that's, it's like the fishy.
smell, right? So different things in the vagina can present differently with different symptoms. When the pH changes this can occur before or right after your period because the blood definitely can change the pH in the vaginal canal. And so that can lead to more an overgrowth of What we'd call bad bacteria.
And certainly like you said, sex can change the bacteria as well. Semen can definitely change the pH inside the vaginal canal and that can also lead to an overgrowth of bacteria. So I would say, yeah, I think some of it could be bacterial inoculation, let's say with sex, but some of it is just the act or just the semen itself can change the pH.
And so that can lead to some of the symptoms that you might have after.
Sheree: Yeah, definitely. And if we think about, You know what some of those symptoms might be because if you are sitting here going, okay, maybe this is me [00:04:00] Maybe I need to get some treatment and then understanding that it could be really important for you to get your partner treatment treated as well Not just put everything or the responsibility on yourself I think that's another key piece to this puzzle because a lot of the time We do, we take it on as a woman to be like, Okay, I'm treating myself, and then we wonder why it's a recurrent infection.
Whereas if both of you were going to get treated, you're going to find that these symptoms dissipate. And just like many other STIs or even STDs, a lot of the times, the woman is the one that's the most symptomatic, and the man can go on carrying it and having no idea that it's actually present. So, if we look at some of the common symptoms, this can look like a change in your vaginal discharge.
Watery and milky, but not in the way of ovulation, sometimes it's a bit more thin or grayish white. The odor is the most prevalent one when it comes to VEV, I think that people recognize. A little bit less common is something called, like, something with vaginal irritation or itching. The burning sensation when you urinate, slight discomfort Spotting or bleeding that's not related to your actual [00:05:00] period or there's swelling or redness around the vulva.
So some of them, some of those symptoms can just be a little like checklist in your head just to see again, not diagnosing here, but just to bring into your awareness.
Christa Elza: Yeah. And it can be difficult to self diagnose some of these things. The biggest differentiators is going to be most likely the odor that you have because something like a yeast infection does not have an odor like that.
It doesn't have like a really pungent fishy odor. That's definitely more of a bacterial. And then like you said, the vaginal discharge because yeast is going to be more of a sick cottage cheesy kind of discharge, whereas bacterial vaginosis is going to be very thin not sticky, not stretchy.
BV doesn't have as much itching as yeast, I would say. Yeast infections are typically really irritating because, one of those major symptoms is going to be less smell, more itchy. Interesting discharge, right? VV is going to be characterized, I would say, primarily by that fishy odor, that you feel like, oh, am I not clean enough?
It's an internal thing [00:06:00] and that, the discharge should never have a foul odor to it, ever. The odor may change slightly, but if it's a foul odor that you just are like, what in the world is this? Then it's, you want to get tested for a bacterial infection, for sure. Let's talk a little bit about treatment because it's very easily treatable.
What can be frustrating though is when it comes back. When you notice, if you notice like, at the end of your period every single month, this is what happens. That's because of the pH of the blood in your body and you tend to be more sensitive to it. So Share with us some over the counter and I'll touch on some prescriptions, but over the counter, you can do some things without a prescription and this can be done, if you recognize a pattern like post period or just throughout the month you can do some over the counter supplements to help.
I'm going to show you how to balance the pH.
Sheree: Yeah, so one of the things that I love , educating and supporting around this is, I always go for, and we've talked about this many times, it's preventative if we can, but we can also balance our internal pH through probiotics. Like oral [00:07:00] probiotics, or there's even vaginal probiotics.
And, like you mentioned before, which I do want to touch on and bring the importance to, is it's actually not putting cleaning products or the feminine wipes, or anything that's going to aggravate or upset the pH balance. Around your or inside your vaginal area like we don't need to be soaping it We don't need to be putting all these feminine hygiene products.
If anything, they're going to make matters worse So it is really important that we are keeping it fragrance free down there We are you know wiping front to back. We're making sure that we aren't bringing in any of those kind of external chemicals into that area. But then to take it a layer further, there's a lot of research to support the, to bring a lot of balance.
And just like when we balance our gut microbiome to put in certain strains of bacteria. So there is the, I'm going to probably brutally destroy how I say these, but the lactobacillus bacterium were actually really prominent in helping bring balance to the vaginal [00:08:00] pH. So there's the lactobacillus.
Okay. I'm actually going to butcher these completely. Rotary. No, I don't even know if I can say this. Maybe we'll put these in the show notes . . The acidophilus is also a fantastic one. That one I can say. And all of these are really prominent in restoring that flora or that microbiome. And so by having this high dose level of lactobacillus bacterium going into our body.
That is going to help bring that pH into a much better balance. As well as, increasing things like your antimicrobials, things like your garlic, your oregano chamomile, turmeric, and can be some herbs as well. So if we're looking at this from a real natural herbal remedy or a probiotic remedy to support BV, those are some of the things that we can start to look at applying.
Christa Elza: Yeah. And another, if the over the counter doesn't work, there are some medications that you can take and be prescribed. Clindamycin is one there's medications that if you don't, I would try, especially [00:09:00] because, Some of these can be short lived, right, just by doing some over the counter.
If you're finding that is not helpful, then there are antibiotics that you can either take orally Flagyl is one that you can take orally. You can also do suppositories and that, that eradicates it pretty quickly. But if you're finding that it's a chronic issue, I think you pointed out a really great point that it could be your partner as well.
So you may both want to be tested. It's. You can be tested easily with a quick swab and they can look under the microscope and clearly see what would be driving the odor if it is bacterial and then they can treat you appropriately, but it's important to track this because you don't want any kind of chronic inflammation in and around the cervix in that area.
to get on top of it. And I think probiotics. The other supplements that you recommended can be great starting points to see if you get a little bit of help that way. I would also reiterate that we don't want to be douching. You don't want to be, adding deodorants and things like [00:10:00] that to the area that only increases the imbalance in bacteria in the vaginal canal.
So I know it's tempting, but you definitely want to avoid those. So,
Sheree: and the other thing is just to, highlight obviously you're going to want to treat it from the fact that you may get the smell and that might be enough to motivate you. But there's also number of women that go undiagnosed with this and it's not like there's no symptoms present.
They don't actually know that they have the BV and if this is left untreated, it can lead to a variety of issues as well. So you've got like increased pelvic inflammation, preterm births, miscarriages, and even susceptibility to other STIs. So, it's. It's prevention again in the sense that we, like we just talked about, what you need to be doing and making sure you're looking after your vaginal pH.
But it's also, if you are finding there are other issues, there's a lot of inflammation in the body, it may be worth getting tested for something like BV to make sure that you're not going around untreated for something like this. And that could be causing other bigger issues in the body.
Christa Elza: That's right. I hope you all found this helpful. It's [00:11:00] definitely one of those topics that you don't want to talk about necessarily, and it can be really embarrassing to feel like, why are things smelling different? But there is a science y reason why, and there ways to definitely prevent it and to lower its occurrence and to get rid of it fast.
So I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us. We have our individual contact information in the show notes. And until next time.
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