Intimate Health | Part 2
To continue on discussing Intimate Health understanding from the previous journal post let’s take a look at what next with the understanding of vaginal health.
Firstly, I would like to make sure I provide an understanding of regular monthly vaginal discharge. In response to hormones, primarily oestrogen, your discharge will change through the course of a month:
initially at the completion of your menstrual bleed, there will be either no discharge or/and you will start to develop to a pasty type white discharge that you may notice on your underwear. And unless this is quite purulent and does not cause symptoms is most likely normal.
In the week leading up to ovulation the discharge will become more liquid, clear, thinner, until at ovulation you will notice the discharge become quite globulus and stretchy, like egg white. This is your fertile mucus, allowing easy access for sperm to make its way through to fertilise your newly released egg.
And then once again once as we move away from ovulation towards the bleed the discharge will become thinner, until it disappears and the bleed begins, and your beautiful menstrual cycle starts yet again.
Intimate Health Symptoms and Abnormal Discharge
If you are still sticking with me through this then perhaps unfortunately you have also been experiencing some vaginal symptoms and feel that something is not quite right. And this is common, very common. Due to all the reasons listed in the first post - personal hygiene and sexual practices, hormonal changes, diet - your vaginal microbiome can become disturbed allowing access to less desirable microbes to set up camp.
You may start to experience itchiness (that can become unbearable!!), burning vulva, painful sex, and a discharge that has become excessive, changed colour, texture, odours, and can make you feel embarrassed. This can affect your sexuality, which is core to you and who you are. The discharge characteristics are different dependent on the microbes which have taken residence, so to help in the assessment of what is going on, start taking notes before heading off to your GP (or me) as this can help determine the microbes present and guide the treatment. Discharges can be thick and white like cottage cheese, white and grayish, green and frothy or just copious. And the odour? The ‘fishy’ type odour is actually due to the amines of a particular bacteria being broken down.
So, please don’t be embarrassed, take notes, mental or otherwise, and let’s get on top of this, work out what is going on and treat appropriately.
Should you test? How can you test?
Quite often symptoms can lead to an understanding of what might be going for you. However, if you have had a history of vaginal infections you have probably found yourself at your GP, and hopefully they have taken a vaginal swab to check under microscopy and culture. This can provide the first clues as to what is going on as it will provide information as to the different microbes present and in what quantities, or more importantly quantities relative to each other.
It is from this information that we can determine or confirm the most likely cause of disruption and hence appropriate treatment. Treatment that not only relieves your discomfort but restores vaginal health so that recurrent issues don’t occur. Please bring copies of these tests to your intimate health naturopathic appointment at Nourish and Breathe.
You might also be asked by me to start to measure your vaginal pH with some pH test paper throughout the course of the month. As we know what the optimum pH of the vagina should be for good vaginal health, the pH level of your vaginal can focus treatment to restore vaginal pH to allow beneficial microbes to exist and flourish.
If the symptom picture and your vaginal swab does not provide a clear picture it may be necessary to undergo a microbiome study, which will determine the individual microbes in residence. This can really illuminate if there are multiple infections that have developed.
But sometimes this is not enough. If there has been long standing disruption to the health of the vagina with many treatments over a long period of time, the microbes can invade tissues and create biofilms, bacteria become smart and build a strong barrier around themselves for self-protection. This requires the next level of treatment to bust the bacteria party, and also can require a longer length of time for treatment. But this is necessary as standard treatments, antibiotics or otherwise, will not be able to create the environment for resolution and healing. But, the good news is that healing can occur, and you can achieve a healthy happy vagina ~ yes vaginas can be happy!
Naturopathic Treatment of Intimate Health
Naturopathic treatment focuses on stabilising the pH environment of the vagina, encouraging Lactobacilli populations, easing the symptoms experienced - tender vulvas, itchy vaginas.
Then moving in with an army of good bacteria to repopulate and encourage the correct environment for your own microbes to flourish, driving out pathogenic bacterias with herbal antimicrobials if necessary.
There is no one answer to fit all. It is also important and essential to consider all factors that can affect vaginal health, to remove triggers, to support the vagina when exposed to pathogenic bacterias or if challenged at some point. This is why I enjoy my work and practicing as a naturopath...I get to know you, and your health and provide foundational healing.
Thank you to Moira at www.intimateecology.com.au who is so generous with her knowledge and teachings in this field. Moira is the vag queen and so passionate about all things with regards vaginal microbiome, she even has a ‘vagiversity’ course, and is responsible for training so many of us practitioners so that we can serve you, our clients, better.
If you would like a confidential conversation about your own situation, please reach out.