You may occasionally experience itching and burning, both at the entrance to and in the vagina itself. In the vast majority of cases, it is not due to disease but to an imbalance triggered by either bacteria or fungus. Both parts normally occur in your abdomen but are kept down by the low pH value that is in your intimate area. Both fungi and bacteria get better growth conditions if the pH value in the abdomen rises from the normal 3.8 - 4.2. It can, for example, be if the good bacteria are exposed to soap with too high a pH value or are killed in connection with antibiotic treatment. But it can also be due to a change of partner or hormonal changes in connection with menstruation, pregnancy or menopause.
Bacteria and fungal infections can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse or flare up if your immune system is weakened. It can, for example, be if you suffer from diabetes or eat a diet high in sugar. Most often, the condition can be managed with over-the-counter preparations, but sometimes medicines are required. As I said, we are not talking about diseases, but about imbalances that you can relatively easily correct yourself.
Fungal infections
Three out of four women experience vaginal yeast infection at least once in their lives. Fungus is typically caused by candida albicans, resulting in whitish and gritty vaginal discharge. Fungus must be treated with care products or medicines depending on the degree. If you suspect that you have fungus, see your doctor or gynecologist and find out if you need treatment with suppositories, cream or tablets.
You can prevent fungal infections yourself by eating less sugar, drinking less alcohol, refraining from wearing tight-fitting pants, underwear and panty liners, maintaining good hygiene, caring for your skin with products developed for use in the intimate area, drying yourself from front to back and remembering to urinate after intercourse.
Bacteria
The most frequently occurring harmful bacteria in the vagina is gardnarella, which causes itching and burning, foul-smelling and green-yellowish and sometimes frothy discharge. You are diagnosed with gardnarella by an inoculation at the doctor, and the bacteria is treated with antibiotics. Remember to always follow up an antibiotic course with a supplement of vaginal lactic acid bacteria, which helps to restore the bacterial flora in your abdomen.
A third of all women experience vaginal catarrh, also called bacterial vaginosis, in the fertile part of our lives. Vaginosis is a sign that too few good lactic acid bacteria are present. They must be supplied to restore a healthy bacterial flora in the vagina. Vaginosis as such cannot be transmitted through sex, but can occur if you change partners and are introduced to new bacteria. The symptoms are typically itching, burning, irritation, lumpy, yellowish and foul-smelling discharge, pain during intercourse - and in some cases cystitis, which is caused by the bacteria migrating from the vagina up through the urethra and into the bladder.
You get help treating vaginosis from your doctor, who takes a swab of secretions from your vagina to determine whether you need a course of antibiotics.
You can prevent both vaginosis and other bacterial infections yourself by continuously paying attention to symptoms, taking care of your intimate care, adding good lactic acid bacteria in capsule form and using intimate care products to ensure a healthy and normal pH value.
Men can also have both bacteria and fungus. And although they often have no symptoms, men can pass the infection on to their partners. If you get a bacterial or fungal infection, it is therefore important that any male partner is also treated, so that he does not continue to infect you.
