Eric Goldberg via Flickr

Eric Goldberg via Flickr

Are you the compulsive type; wiping down every surface with lysol multiple times a day, slobbing on hand-sanitizers every hour?

Don’t get me wrong, clean is good.

Obsessive clean is well, not so good and could actually harm you in ways you can’t imagine.

Shall we start off with one?

The vagina flora is made of of 3 major elements;

-acidic bacteria called lactobacillus

-alkaline bacteria

-yeast

Of the 3, the acidic bacteria; lactobacillus has the highest concentration to maintain an acidic medium so things can go on like the should down there.

All this changes when Ms. Super Clean hoses down the vagina (AKA douching) thereby flushing out the lactobacillus bacteria. The result of this exercise is an overgrowth of the alkaline bacteria.  Hey when the cat’s gone the mice come out to play.

Overgrowth of the alkaline bacteria leads to a stinky fishy odor and discharge down there known as bacterial vaginosis. The odor and discharge down there gets  Ms. Super Clean worked-up and make her even more meticulous with the douching and it only gets worse from there.

The moral of the story? Be clean  but don’t be too compulsive about it. Also skip the douche.

 

 

About the author

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Dr. Bola

Family physician. Works for the "man" by day, wife & mom 24/7.
Loves the work of translating "medicalese" to plain english.

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