Intimate Health | Part 1
What is Intimate Health?
Taking care of yourself, because you can and you should. My ethos at Nourish and Breathe is always education for self-empowerment, so that you get to really understand YOU. When you connect and can “check-in” with yourself and your body, you can stay balanced and be aware when things start to veer off course with your physical or emotional health. And there is nothing more core and central to us than our intimate health ~ your vaginal health.
Intimate health is all about looking after the health of your vagina - all the discharges, itches, smells and unconformtablenesses that can occur. Caring for your own vaginal health is much more than just an antibiotic or anti-fungal pill or cream prescribed by a GP or pickup from the pharmacy to get over some unpleasant symptoms. And unfortunately it can be feelings of embarrassment from something not quite ‘down there’ that can prevent us from achieving healing and getting it all sorted out for good.
I have just finished a rather large body of work, extra study and learning, so that I can serve you better in this area. And OMG am I so grateful for these teachings, and so wish I had this depth of understanding earlier, but better late than never. And without downloading and overwhelming you with too much information I would like to share here a few key learnings that I believe will give you a greater understanding of your vaginal health, and help guide you to know when to get professional help and when not, and to understand there are answers beyond an anti-fungal cream or antibiotic. And I know you will be really interested in this if you have a recurrent vaginal issue, i.e. something keeps reoccurring, an itch, a discharge, anything.
Firstly, learn your own natural normal discharge. Yes our vaginas have a normal discharge that changes throughout the month under the influence of our fluctuating hormones. Get to know what your normal is, so that you can tell when things aren’t quite right. Normal discharge should be clear to white ranging from pasty to more fluid to egg white type consistency at ovulation i.e. mid-cycle and with no particularly strong odour. So, the take-away here is that not all discharge is a problem.
Secondly, not all abnormal discharge is candida - a fungal infection caused by Candida albicans. There are other candida species fungal infections that don’t respond to standard treatments. And there are also bacterial infections with similar symptoms that occur causing the condition known as Bacterial Vaginosis (BV), or Cytolytic Vaginosis. There are also aerobic bacterias that can cause a burning painful vaginitis, plus a nasty little protozoa known as Trichomonas. All of these are common and can cause you varying degrees of discomfort and changes to your normal discharge pattern.
Thirdly, we have a normal bacteria growth that populates our vagina, just as there are bacteria in our digestive system, our urinary tract and our mouth - the big wide world of microbiomes. The thing about the vagina is that optimum vaginal health is usually maintained when there is a lack of diversity of the bacterias, and when those bacterias that are present are primarily the Lactobacilli species. The beauty of the Lactobacilli is that they produce 2 acids, hydrogen peroxide and lactic acid, which keep our vaginas in a nice acidic range, between 3.6-4.5, maintaining our health by keeping out undesirable pathogens. When this preferred microbiome shifts, then other species can creep in and dominate and allow further infections and symptoms to arise, i.e. our vaginal health changes.
If this happens the focus is then on what can shift this microbiome change and improve symptoms and also sort the problem out for good? Many things! But here is a starting point…
Hormones - the rise and fall of oestrogen such as in menopause, or under hormone contraception, or with a menstrual cycle issue, your vaginal health can shift.
Diet - higher blood glucose levels, too much ‘sugar’ can feed Candida species.
Lifestyle - stress and adrenal hormones
Personal Hygiene & Sexual Activity Practices
Also, it’s interesting to note is that good vaginal health offers a level of protection for urinary health. So, if you are constantly experiencing urinary tract infections it is important to check in with your vaginal health. Similarly, digestive issues can indicate your gut health and more significantly that your gut microbiome is out of balance, and this may affect your vaginal health.
We need a healthy gut for a healthy body ~ good health begins in the gut.
Contact me in Clinic if you feel that this an area of concern for you, I am happy to talk. And if you are booking in for Intimate please let me know as there is a special consult form for you to complete.
Part 2 in this series looks at testing options and Naturopathic Treatment.