Should women douche?
No. What many people don’t know is that the vagina has the incredible ability to clean itself on a regular basis. When you douche, you’re damaging the cell in the vagina wall that is responsible for the cleanliness of the vagina and so it gets exposed and fails to clean itself. This results in infections and abnormal discharges.
When you douche you might get the temporary relief of feeling like your vagina is clean because you’ve done something actively about it, but after a while you’ll start to see abnormal discharges and experience itchiness because your vagina can no longer protect itself anymore against any foreign organisms that it may be exposed to.
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Are there any exceptions to douching?
No, because there’s no benefit from it. It’s a misconception that one can benefit from douching, the vagina is very delicate in a sense that it needs to maintain a certain pH at all times, and pH is usually more acidic compared to any other part of the body. If you interfere with the pH balance, the vagina won’t be able to protect itself anymore.
Anything that’s foreign that goes into the vagina, whether it’s a douching product or food particles, has the ability to destruct the pH of the vagina. Douches are more common to cause this effect because they have chemicals that actually disrupt the pH levels. When your vaginal pH is altered, you become exposed to infections.
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What are the other disadvantages of douching?
• You expose yourself to a bacterial infection commonly known as bacterial vaginosis, which develops when the vagina fails to protect itself.
• Offensive discharge.
• Itchiness.
• Thrush, which you get when the defence mechanism of the vagina fails and as a result you get a white, thick discharge that doesn’t have an odour, per se.
What is the best way to clean the vagina?
Use plain water as it’s neutral and it won’t affect the natural balance of the vagina. If you use anything too acidic or too alkaline then it will have an effect on the vagina’s pH balance. If there’s anything that develops, like a discharge, then you should have it checked by a gynaecologist immediately.
