Douching is bad for you
by Laura Jones
For a lot of us, douching
(rinsing out the vagina with water or a special solution)
is a regular part of our lives as women. We may douche after
our menstrual period, before or after sexual intercourse,
or when we have a vaginal infection or that infamous “not-so-fresh”
feeling. If we grew up seeing the women in our family use
douches, we may have started using them too when we first
began our periods. Many of us have heard that women need to
douche, that douching is necessary to keep ourselves clean
and smelling nice. But douching disrupts our body’s natural
protective cleansing system and rinses away the bacteria and
yeast that are always present in our vaginas. The resulting
irritation can make it easier for us to get STDs, bacterial
and yeast infections, and HIV infection. Women with HIV are
already at greater risk for gyne problems; douching can complicate
the vaginal infections common to women living with HIV/AIDS,
possibly leading to serious health problems or an increase
in viral load. Douching can also rinse away the vaginal secretions
that can give us information about our overall health, especially
where our hormonal cycles are concerned. For women who have
HIV, this can mean losing out on clues which may be helpful
in determining how HIV disease and/or medications are affecting
their immune system.
Since many women associate
douching with cleanliness and good hygiene, it may come as
a surprise to learn that douching can actually be dangerous.
But the truth is, we’re not dirty, and our vaginas can
take care of themselves. The best thing to do for our health
is to leave our vaginas alone and let our natural system work.
There’s supposed to be stuff in there—left to their
own devices, they keep each other from overgrowing and promote
healthy vaginal pH balance (strong enough for a man, but made
by and for a woman!). And there’s supposed to be stuff
coming out of us, too—different stuff throughout our
menstrual cycle. In fact, vaginal secretions can actually
help us know when we’re in good health, if we know what
to look for.
The dangers of douching
The dangers of douching
are threefold. First of all, douching can cause irritation
and inflammation of vaginal tissues, which make it easier
for STDs and HIV to set up shop in our bodies. Secondly, douching
can actually cause an infection by disrupting the natural
balance of bacteria and yeast in the vagina. Infections lead
to an immune response, which for women with HIV could in turn
lead to increased viral replication. Women who have irregular
cycles because of hormonal changes or medications may also
find that they experience more vaginal dryness, which can
also lead to irritation, tears, and an increased risk of STDs,
HIV, or vaginal infection. Douching on top of vaginal dryness
is doubly dangerous for women of all ages and HIV status!
So if your vagina feels dry or intercourse is uncomfortable,
throw douches out the window and pile on the water-based lubricants—they
help keep you safer, and they’re more fun!
Thirdly, douching can complicate
an existing infection, perhaps even to the point of serious
health risk. If you notice an unusual vaginal discharge, do
NOT douche! The discharge may be a sign that your vagina is
trying to re-balance itself, and washing it away could slow
down your body’s healing process. If the discharge is
caused by an infection, douching could push the germs causing
the infection up into the cervix or uterus, increasing the
chance of PID (pelvic inflammatory disease, a serious infection
of the uterus, fallopian tubes, and/or ovaries). Women with
immune systems weakened by HIV/AIDS are at special risk for
developing PID, which may be more difficult to treat and more
likely to cause long-term damage in HIV positive women than
in women without HIV. If you think you might have a vaginal
infection—especially if you have low abdominal pain,
pain with intercourse, or abdominal pain with fever and chills—go
to a doctor or clinic to have your symptoms properly diagnosed
and treated.
But if a woman’s been
douching since she started menstruating, she may not be familiar
with her normal secretions. So where do we start? How do we
know what’s healthy, and what’s not?
Normal vaginal secretions
In general, healthy
secretions are clear or light-colored, with mild or no odor.
Vaginal secretions change throughout the menstrual cycle,
and these changes may become very noticeable if you don’t
douche. The secretions differ depending on the level of estrogen
and progesterone (female hormones) in our bodies. Ovulation
(the ripening and releasing of eggs from the ovaries) is also
controlled by these hormones; therefore, secretions will differ
depending on whether or not a woman ovulates.
Your cycle starts with Day
1 of your menstrual bleeding, and ends the day your next bleeding
starts. Between bleeds, ovulating women will often notice
a pattern in their secretions. For the first few days, secretions
may be whitish and sticky (maybe even pasty, or perhaps nonexistent!).
Your vagina may feel pretty dry. Then there’ll be a few
days of increasingly creamy whitish secretions, followed by
mucous that looks and feels a lot like egg whites. This is
fertile mucous, and means that we’re near ovulation.
This is the time of month when we are most likely to become
pregnant, so if you want to become pregnant, watch for the
fertile mucous! If you don’t want to get pregnant, watch
for the fertile mucous and either avoid sexual activity that
puts semen in or around your vagina, or use a barrier birth
control method (diaphragm, cervical cap, male or female condom).
After the fertile mucous comes the creamy whitish secretion
again, followed by the pasty-or-nonexistent secretions. And
then you bleed again. It’s incredibly cool.
Women who use hormonal birth
control methods (birth control pills, Depo shots, or Norplant)
usually don’t ovulate. Post-menopausal women (gone through
“the change”) don’t ovulate at all. They will
still have vaginal secretions, but they may be consistently
creamy, pasty or fairly dry, and that egg-white stuff won’t
come down (note: hormonal birth control methods—especially
“mini-pills”—suppress ovulation but may not
keep you from ovulating every single month). Women who are
post-menopausal no longer have menstrual bleeding, while women
using hormonal birth control may have irregular bleeding (Norplant,
Depo), extremely regular bleeding (birth control pills), or
no bleeding at all (Depo, Norplant).
Abnormal vaginal secretions
Changes in the amount,
color, consistency or smell of vaginal secretions are often
a sign of infection. Yellowish, greenish, brownish or bloody
discharge (when you’re not having your menstrual bleeding)
can indicate an infection, as can discharges that are bubbly,
foamy, or chunky like cottage cheese. Sometimes vaginal discharges
might look normal but smell fishy, yeasty, or just plain bad.
Yeast infections (vulva inflammation and/or itching with whitish,
cottage-cheesy, yeast-smelling discharge) are a common experience
for most women, but can be a special nuisance for women with
HIV/AIDS.
Sometimes we might also have
vaginal infections that don’t produce a discharge, so
also watch out for itching, redness, irritation, blisters/sores,
and discomfort or stinging when you urinate. If you do douche
and you notice any of these symptoms afterward, it’s
safest not to have sex until you no longer feel itching or
discomfort—you might be irritated from the douche, and
the tiny breaks in your genital skin can make it easier for
you to get an STD or HIV. If you do have sex while you have
discomfort or signs of an infection, using male or female
condoms and extra water-based lube can help protect you.
Occasionally, gynecologists
or nurse practitioners may prescribe douches for specific
reasons—under certain circumstances, rinsing the vagina
with herbal or iodine solutions may be appropriate. But the
kinds of douches that are sold in stores are unnecessary at
best. They are part of a whole industry that’s financed
by encouraging women to feel embarrassed by their natural
secretions and odors, and that’s where your money goes
when you buy douches not specifically prescribed by a medical
practitioner. As long as we bathe regularly and are in good
health, we don’t stink—we smell like people, which
is what we are. So the next time you’re watching TV or
reading a magazine and you see that “not-so-fresh”
ad, ask yourself why you’d want to smell like flowers
anyway—especially if smelling like flowers could make
you sick.
Viva la Vulva!
Note: While the information
in this article may be helpful in increasing a woman’s
awareness of her cycles, it is not intended as instruction
in fertility.
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