If you ask most women, they would assume that the vagina should not smell at all, no odor, or odorless.
While this is not entirely, the vagina will have its own unique smell and it may vary from person to person, same way we as humans have our own specific odor or smell.
The problem is when the smell now becomes unbearable to either you or the next person and this can pose a problem especially when you need to be in the presence of other people or when you are about to get down and dirty, you get my drift?
Here are just 4 common causes of an bad vaginal smell.
A Vaginal Infection
We will start from the most common cause of a bad vaginal smell, an infection in the vagina.
Before we go in, let me explain something, your vagina contains normal bacteria, called the lactobacilli, similar to what is found in yoghurts, this bacteria is what gives the vagina an acidic pH, but when they become overshadowed by infections or by antibiotic abuse, they can die off giving other harmful bacteria the chance to grow and multiply in the vagina, this infection can cause a bad offensive smell from the vagina.
Also sometimes, if you abuse antibiotics or douche- this means if you wash the insides of your vagina, you can kill off the good bacteria that we talked about earlier and make it easy for bad bacteria to grow in the vagina which causes a smell.
Sexually transmitted infections like Trichomoniasis, can also cause an offensive vaginal smell.
A yeast infection may also have an fishy smell also, this is not sexually transmitted and is very common among many women. We will talk about the causes of this later.
Your Food
Sometimes, what you eat is excreted through your skin, armpits, sweat glands majorly and in some small amounts through the vagina.
There is research showing that strong spicy foods like pepper, garlic, onion, fish, tend to affect the smell of your vaginal secretions, even if you don’t have a vaginal infection, you can try looking for the meal that is changing the way your vagina smells
Remove it and you might notice an improvement.
Sweat
When you wear tight clothing for too long, especially trousers, tights and the rest, you can cause moisture to build up in these areas, cotton based materials are the best to wear as they absorb moisture and keep the area fairly dry, also do not forget to change them often.
Because of the location of the vagina in the groin, it prone to sweat and as such, moist areas are associated with smell, especially when sweaty. Also, the groin has a special kind of sweat glands known as the apocrine glands, these glands are also present in the which secrete a special kind of fluid that is broken down by bacteria to give off a noticeable smell.
Tampons
I have heard cases of people who leave or forget tampons in their vaginas, the blood and products start to break down and give off a bad odor, not just that, but it can give a serious infection called the Toxic Shock Syndrome which may be life-threatening.
If you use tampons, change them very often, as soon as they get soaked, a rule of thumb is every 4 hours, but if you get heavy flows, then you should change more often than usual.
How can you prevent it?
If the smell is associated with discharge and lower abdominal pain, please see a doctor, do not go around abusing antibiotics, they maight make matters worse.
But here are some things you can do to help the smell:
· Wear cotton panties.
· Underwear should be loose and not too tight.
· Change your clothes immediately after exercising.
· Don’t douche. It removes the good bacteria in the vagina, which help prevent infection.
· Use mild soaps around the vagina, avoid harsh irritating products so as not to kill of the good bacteria
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