Vaginal Odor

One of the hardest things to deal with are personal problems of a physical nature which may be a bit too private or embarrassing to mention to others or even to ask your regular doctor. You’ll feel that your long standing doctor may suddenly think of you as dirty or unhygienic if you were to tell your doctor about your problems. This is where getting online information about your condition and symptoms can be particularly useful.

One of the most embarrassing problems that women can face is vaginal odor which can be caused by many different types of diseases of infections causing the stench or even discharge. The problem with this type of ailment is that it is very hard to diagnose the exact cause and as such may require many visits to the doctor which can compound the effect of the embarrassment even further.

To make matters worst there are even different types of smells which an afflicted vagina may give off, thus complicating matters and cause further confusions to the doctors. Some old school doctors have even misdiagnosed common bacterial vaginosis as a sexually transmitted disease and give you the “overly sexually active” lecture that many of us don’t want to hear.

Here we will go through some common ailments that will cause vaginal odors. Each causes for the vaginal odors is distinctly different and should never be treated by the wrong drugs or creams. Choosing the wrong treatment will often cause the vaginal ailment to get worst and therefore smells to get worst too.

The first and most common type of smell is a strong fishy smell. This is called Bacterial Vaginosis (BV). It must firstly be understood that the vagina is actually an odorless organ and doesn’t actually doesn’t produce any smells by itself. The vagina has a host good bacteria to keep the area balanced. BV is caused by an imbalance of the bacteria within the vagina where a certain type of bacteria experiences overgrowth. This overgrowth will often mean that other bacteria are killed and the secretions from the overgrowth of bacteria are the ones which cause the fishy smells.

Bacterial Vaginosis is normally caused by a change in the Ph level within the vagina which will actually kill some bacteria while causing others to experience blooms. This normally happens if there is some foreign matter in the vagina for example the introduction of liquids such as disinfectants or non-Ph-neutral solutions inside the vagina, such as normal soaps or other cleansers. Sometimes it is also caused by inadequate cleaning of the vagina after it has experienced “heavy use”. Sometimes foreign matter in the form of dirt can find its way up the vagina can cause the change in Ph levels as they decompose.

Another common cause of vaginal odor is Vaginitis. As the name implies it is a disorder which causes an infection or inflammation to the vagina the bad odor from the vagina is a by-product from the infection or inflammation. Vaginitis is actually a very broad description of many different types of infections that may be caused by foreign bacteria, yeast or viruses. Generally most of these causes are external to the vagina and is the introduction of the bacteria, virus or yeast that causes the inflammation and subsequent odor.

The common symptoms of vaginitis are an itching and burning sensation followed by unusual discharge from the vagina not experienced under normal circumstances. The itching and burning normally extends from the inside of the vagina to the vulva creating a red and inflamed appearance. The problem is that many of these ailments present the same symptoms so under these circumstances a visit to the local doctor is always recommended so that you can get a better diagnosis.

Another common infection also belonging to the vaginitis family is “yeast infection” or Candida. This is caused by many different species of fungus with the family name of Candida. It is normal that the Candida fungus grows in the vagina although it is the abnormal overgrowth of the fungus that creates the problems. Yeast infections produce thick, white vaginal discharge that has a similar consistency to cottage cheese. The discharge caused by the yeast infection by itself doesn’t have any odor but other complication could occur causing the discharge to firstly look bad and also smelly bad.

Yeast infections are normally caused by imbalances in the woman’s system such as the use of antibiotics, pregnancy, hormone changes, diabetes or other urinary or vaginal infections.

All up we recommend that vaginal odors be treated with care as there are a myriad of different ailments which cause the odor. Treating the ailment wrongly will normally cause the ailment to get worst and subsequently cause the smell to get worst.