Vaginal health

Your vagina is an amazing place, and it’s worth taking time to keep it healthy with lots of vaginal mucus. It is natural for your vaginal mucus to fluctuate throughout your menstrual cycle, but your vagina can become irritated (vaginitis).  A dry vagina can also be a problem at any age and is particularly associated with the menopause. Try these tips to keep your vaginal mucus healthy.

Tips

Diet

Make sure you have a good diet with lots of fatty acids (e.g. sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, salmon, houmous), lots of B vitamins (carrots, marmite), and foods to help maintain oestrogen levels (e.g. soy sauce and other soya bean products, apples, cherries, flaxseeds, and flaxseed oil).

Vitamins E and D are also sometimes suggested as good things to ensure are plentiful in your diet for a healthy vagina.  Try salmon, sardines and mackerel, red meat, eggs and fortified cereals for vitamin D.   Salmon, sunflower seeds, avocado, red pepper, mango and kiwi fruit are all good sources of vitamin E.

Drink lots of water to make sure that you stay hydrated, so that this does not exacerbate the problem.  You’ll know you are well hydrated if you have lots of pale, straw-coloured pee.

Click here for recipe ideas.

Exercise

Cardiovascular exercise (e.g. walking, running, dance) helps to maintain blood flow to the vagina.

Cider vinegar

Try adding a few tablespoons of cider vinegar to your bathwater to help with mild vaginal irritation.

Vaginal laser treatment

This is supposed to be good for vaginal dryness as well as stress and urge incontinence.  It is a fairly new experimental treatment, and massively expensive, so possibly only for the truly desperate.

Maca root

Studies have suggested that maca root supplements can improve menopausal symptoms.   Maca root is also often suggested to reduce vaginal dryness, and to improve fertility, although I haven’t found any studies that back that up.  Check out our tips for taking supplements here.

Avoiding Cystitis, Thrush and Urinary tract infections

Some simple tips to help you avoid cystitis, thrush and similar nasties:

• Always have a pee before and after sex.
• Make sure you drink plenty of water – your pee should be a pale straw colour.
• Drink cranberry juice to keep your bladder healthy
• Wear cotton underwear, and try to avoid clothes that are very tight around the crotch.
• Avoid using soaps, shower gels, talcum powder, cleansing wipes, perfumes, deodorants and antiseptics anywhere near your vulva or vagina.
• Showers are better than baths, and definitely don’t use bubble bath.
• Douching is a definite no-no, as it will upset your good bacteria in your vagina.  Do not do.

Also, avoid over-use of sanitary pads.  Why not try a Mooncup instead?  Maybe you are using sanitary pads to mask a problem with incontinence?  If this sounds like you, check out our tips for stress and urge incontinence.

Link to the Gynae Geek blog here.