WOMEN SEXUAL PROBLEM

Vaginal Infection

Whether you get vaginal infections once a month or once a decade, you know, at best they are thoroughly annoying and you'd do anything to get far from the maddening itch. At worst, they can seriously affect your health. Is it possible to treat, and clear up, vaginal infections yourself? The answer is sometimes, especially if you catch them early enough. But often they require prompt medical attention. However, the good news is that you can prevent most vaginal infections, most of the time. The key to prevention and some times treatment is understanding the vaginal 'ecosystem'. We call it an ecosystem because inspite of the occasional annoyances, the vagina is usually a wonderfully efficient, and astonishingly complex, self-maintaining system. It washes itself out. It harbors good microorganisms that keep it healthy and shuts off bad ones. So usually the best kind of health maintenance you can do especially for the internal areas is nothing. The more you interfere with the vaginas natural systems for example with vigorous douching the more likely; you are to upset the balance works is the first step to staying healthy.

Natural defense:

The vagina keeps itself healthy and clean with some ingenious protective systems. Perhaps the most common is the acid balance. A healthy vagina is usually slightly acidic (it registers about 4.0 to 5.0 on the pH scale that runs from 1.0, most acidic, to 14.0 most alkaline) acidity prevents many different kinds of bothersome bacteria and other microorganisms from flourishing. Interestingly, a kind of friendly bacteria keeps the vagina acidic. The 'Good guy' bacteria are called lactobacilli, or doderlains bacilli. If it weren't for the lactobacilli the vagina might always be sugary, alkaline breeding ground for infections that's because the cells of the vaginal wall store sugar, in the form of glucose; secretions in the vagina slough off the cells, releasing the glucose. Bacteria, fungi and protozoa love the feed off that sugar. The lactobacilli thrive on sugar, too, but unlike the other organisms, the lactobacilli turn the sugar into weak lactic acid. The acidity kills off many of the bad organisms. Another important protective system is the vaginal mucus. Some women think of the mucus as 'unclean', but infect. The opposite is true. Unless the discharge is an unusual colour or has a very strong odor. It's a sign that the cleanup process is working fine.

Mucus cleans out the vagina with the help of gravity. The mucus comes from the cervix, and the amount, colour and thickness depend on where you are in your monthly cycle. As it moves down the vagina, the mucus picks up some additional moisture from the vaginal walls and it also picks up dead cells that line the vaginal walls, cleaning them right out. (The cells contribute to the whitish colour) the mucus also moistens and protects the vaginal walls. And it 'plugs' the cervical opening to defend the sterile uterus from microorganism invasion. Things go wrong- itch & infections vaginitis. You are going 'itch' in the night or day. Something's wrong. Your discharge has taken on a yellowish or greish colour. There's been a coup some micro organism is holding your vaginal ecosystem hostage.

What have you got?

It could be a lot of things. The general term for vaginal infections is "vaginitis", but that covers a lot of territory. There are five major kinds of vaginal infections.

Fungal or yeast infection:

The most common is a microscope cause "candidacies" also called "moniliasis" and more commonly, 'thrush', plant like organisms called candida albicans. A few are normally present in the vagina and in the bowels whence they can be brought over to the vagina. They can also be sexually transmitted, and the flourish in a sugary alkaline environment. Small, one-celled animals cause protozoan infections. The best known is trichomonas vaginalis (sometimes referred to as 'trich'. Like fungal infections, protozoa thrive in alkalinity, sexual contacts wet wash cloths there are a variety of ways to pick up trich. One estimate is that half of all women normally have a few trich swimming around in their vagina only 15 percent will get a full fledged out break.

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