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Feminine odor

What are some ways to avoid feminine odor? Washing daily doesn't take the odor away. Started increasing after birth of baby.
Poster
  • Female | 30 years old
  • Medications: None
  • Conditions: None

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Featured Answer

1 UpVoted this answer
Vagina is prone to discharge due to a malady of combined factors. Feminine odor may change throughout the menstrual cycle and is impacted by dysbacteriosis (shifting in cultures either by the altered acidic balance [pH], or by new infection), your daily nutrition, medications you intake, systematic diseases (lupus, diabetes, allergies), stress, and inevitably by the hormonal influence.

You correctly observed, that your discomfort started after the birth of the baby. The puerperial or postnatal period is dominated by the prolactin (stronger in breastfeeding mothers). Prolactin is the estrogen's antagonist. Poor vaginal sanitary is related to the lack of estrogens which increases the alkalinity. That said, even without any infection, you may have unpleasant discharge. Acidity can be altered by: excessive cervical mucus (because of the introduction of new microflora) ,menses, and semen.

Vagina has strong physiological barriers against the STDs: chemical (pH, glycoproteins, flaggelin, peptidoglycan, enzymes like mucinases, sialidases), mechanical (stratified squamous epithelium, dendritic cells, mucus as the drainer), biological (Lactobacillus, mucins MUC5B, MUC5A, MUC6, and transmembrane MUC16, MUC1 ), and immunological - both innate and adaptive (IgM, IgG, IgA, neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, cytokines, TNF-α, IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8, natural killer cells, CD8+ T cells, B-cells, etc). But one simple aid is the maintenance of normal pH (3.8 - 4.5), which avails the defensive function of the normal bacterial microbiata.

As for the biological defense, the normal vaginal flora consists of gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Each group has subgroups of the aerobes and anaerobes. The healthy vagina contains Gram Positive Aerobes (Group D and B streptococcus 34%, Staphylococcus epidermitis 41-94%, Staphylococcus aureus 5%, Rods - like Lactobacilli 50-88% or Diptheroids 30-75%), Gram Positive Anaerobes (Peptococcus 30-64%, Peptostreptococcus 20-45%, Rods like Clostridium 1-18%, Eubacterium 7-30%), Gram Negative Aerobes (E. coli 9-28%, Klebsiella 4%, P. mirabilis 4%), and Gram Negative Anaerobes (Veillonella 10-15%, Rods like Bacteroides fragilis 5%, Fusobacterium 7-25%). That said, if your pap spear resulls indicated that you have, say it, 12% Veillonela or 5% Klebsiella, or 25% Eicherichia colli, that medically means nothing and no "treatment" is necessary.

The number of infections per se (STDs) is uncountabe. Each group manifests with a unique odor. Fungi (Candida glabrata, C. genus, C. tropicalis, C.parapsilosis, or C. krusei,) (except of C. Alba) have specific acidic odor. Virus (molluscum contagiosum, HSV, HPV, HIV, hepatitis B) have no odor. Treponema Pallidum (syphilis) has no odor. Bacterial and rickettsial odors vastly vary. Chamydia's odor is fishy and trichomoniasis' odor is unbearable.

Recommendation: check for the STDs and get the adequate prescription. For example, Metrogel may cure the Trichomoniasis and Garnerella, but cannot help with the yeast. The doctor will prescribe the right medication or a combination of the two or three. There are out of the counter liquids, named "Vinegar Water Disposable Douche," manufactured by Natureplex TM, the daily application of which (for a week) will decrease the pH to fight the odor.
Many women experience a change in amount and odor of discharge post-partum. Many women try douching or wash with soap that can alter the pH. As recommended, a quick culture can show if it's bacterial in nature or fungal (yeast). If you recently gave birth (less than 8 weeks), before you put anything in your vagina, you should check with your OB first. Consuming yogurt, or taking a probiotic can help. Consumption of onions, garlic, asparagus can cause some people to have discharge that is "off" smelling, but is perfectly normal. If your diet has changed since giving birth, you may want to see what you've introduced could be causing the odor.
If you are breast feeding your estrogen level will be low and this alters the bacterial profile in your vagina. You can restore it by using a low pressure douche with "Lactobacillus" milk, available at Safeway. You may have to use it for a week before you notice much difference, and use

it once or twice a week thereafter, until your estrogen level increases. Antibiotics are sometimes necessary but you should follow such treatment with the above regimen to restore the normal vaginal flora.
It is difficult to answer your question until the actual cause is known. I agree with some of the answers below, for example if you are nursing your baby your estrogen levels may be quite low and alter the pH of the vagina causing an imbalance of the amounts of yeast and bacteria that are normal to the vagina. In the worse case you may have a fistula between the rectum and the vagina that formed after the vagina healed (this would only occur if you had a vaginal delivery) and is very rare but should also be investigated. I would go to the OB/Gyn when you notice the odor the most so that he/she would be more likely to find the cause. This might be embarrassing to you but it is necessary to get to the cause. Good luck.
I agree with Dr. Otto, below. Any changes in the body after birth of a baby are hormonal. The solution isn't to take a hormone, but actually to get your body back into balance. No drug can do this. A homeopath, naturopath, acupuncturist, or other truly holistic practitioner can help you restore balance to hormones, without side effects.
This is caused by altered pH

and increased bacteria.

It can be treated easily.
There's can be a lot of good advice from medical doctors on the site, however I like to give you a different perspective. Having a full internal systems evaluation that looks for causative factors of entire body dis-ease is critical to find the cause of this problem and possibly other co-morbidities. I recommend you see a functional medicine doctor which could be an ND, DC, AOM, D.O., and possibly even an integrative MD.

www.discoverhealth.us
Normally,vaginal mucus has no odor. Go back to the ob-gyn doctor to examine u to find the reason & fix it
Victor Shabanah
you need to be checked for a vaginal infection

bacterial vaginosis is notorious for causing an odor

get your vitamin D level checked as well-women who are vitamin D deficient are more prone to bacterial vaginosis
Michael Birnbaum