Femininity. It is an endless journey and today, we’re taking you on a small biochemical tour of vaginas to help answer – What’s with the smell? From when we gain an awareness of ourselves as girls to the reflective moments we have as cute or cranky old ladies, we learn more and more about inhabiting our bodies. Sometimes the questions we get to ask are fun: If I do this, what will happen there? If I stretch there, what effect will it have tomorrow? And then there are times where the questions are considerably less pleasant: What is that, it wasn’t there before? Is that really what it looks like down there now? How the heck did my pudenda concoct that odor?! Each woman has her own preference about how to interpret and create her own smells.
Some of us have gotten all too used to an array of control over odors. You can Febreze almost anything or get your Yankee Candle on or do your frankincense and myrrh rain dance in your apartment to exorcise whatever bad smells are haunting you. However, when it comes to crotch funk, something you should know: your vagina has an incredibly efficient system set up to maintain biochemical harmony that shouldn’t be messed with unless there are notable issues.
Here’s a list of what keeps your vagina biochemically in tune:
- pH Levels: Kind of similar to a fish tank, your vagina needs to be at generally the same range of pH level in order for the smell and feel to be on point. P stands for potential, H stands for hydrogen. pH is the level of acidity or basic-ness of a chemical environment. A vagina typically has a pH level of 3.5 to 4.5 vaginal pH. To give you a frame of reference- typically beer has a pH level around 4, battery acid has a pH level of 0, and bleach has a basic pH level of 13. In the early nineteen hundreds, scientists loved to test the pH levels of vaginal secretions (Linhares). Through their experimentation, scientists discovered correlations between pH levels and the presence of lactobacillus in vaginas.
- Lactobacillus: This is more commonly known as the bacteria that creates lactic acid to break down milk. Doctors have said women need high levels of Lactobacillus bacteria, which produce lactic acid, in the vagina. Usually lactic acid is the most present acid in vaginal secretions, however organic acids such as acetic, mydriatic, and linoleic acid are also normally found in vaginal fluid (Linares). The development of lactobacillus is contingent on a few things, diet being incredibly prevalent to maintaining a healthy set of flora in vaginas.
- Diet: As Millennials may be aware of in the wake of the development of the Greek yogurt craze, eating probiotic items helps replenish the over fifty types of “good” bacteria that exist in vaginas to make it difficult for foreign agents (not Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible or Jerry Macguire, but microbial agents) from entering your major immune system. There are a number of foods that help develop flora: probiotics include kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, miso, wheat germ, olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocados, and lots and lots of water (Berman).
- The ins and outs: What you put inside or near your vulvovaginal domain has a huge effect on the smells and the feels you’re going to elicit. For example, semen. Semen has a pH level of 7-8 which makes it more basic than your typical vaginal pH level. Practicing sex without condoms leaves your vagina vulnerable to a change in pH level that may result in a yeast infection, vaginosis, or any other number of ailments that could occur when your vagina’s systems of defenses are down. Another thing that’s sometimes a harbinger of catastrophe is soap. Soap can have a pH level of 9 to 10 which makes it closer to basic bleach. If you’re rubbing soap all up in the more mystical areas of your vagina, odds are you’re inhibiting the good bacteria from doing its defensive thing.
So, in working with vaginas, we can see that it’s not really a question of creating your own bouquet, but understanding that smell is a part of a larger picture. In order to keep this beautiful mechanism working as smoothly as it’s supposed to, you want to make sure to not let anything from the outside interfere with all the natural processes happening on the inside.
Oddly enough, products made to supposedly “enhance” the smell of our vaginas and those made to safeguard them against menstrual leaks, are sometimes the biggest cause of vaginal odor. They are not only introducing chemicals in to the natural vaginal environment which can disrupt ph levels and in turn create unpleasant smells, but they are also exposing women to phthalates, which are “chemicals of concern for women’s health because they are endocrine disruptors and are linked to harmful health effects including reproductive and developmental harm as well as chronic disease risks in adults.”
That’s why we make all natural tampons, sanitary pads and panty liners. Try using natural menstrual care alternatives and you might find that you’ll not only ditch the need for douche to get rid of smells, but you might also ditch the itch, another common vaginal issue associated with the same chemicals and bacteria that cause vaginal smells. To help get you on a more pleasantly and naturally smelling vaginal routine, we’d like to extend 15% Off your next purchase of Maxim menstrual care products at our online store. Just enter the following coupon at checkout and you’ll be well on your way: SMELL
Sources:
Berman, Laura. “Food That Makes Your Vagina Feel Good.” EverydayHealth.com. N.p., 14 Jan. 2013. Web. Oct. 2015.
Linhares, Iara M., Paul R. Summers, Bryan Larsen, Paulo C. Giraldo, and Steven S. Witkin. “Contemporary Perspectives on Vaginal PH and Lactobacilli.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 204.2 (2011): n. pag. Web.
Francesca Branch, Tracey J. Woodruff, Susanna D. Mitro and Ami R. Zota (2015) Vaginal douching and racial/ethnic disparities in phthalates exposures among reproductive-aged women: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2004. Environmental Health. Vol.14. No. 57, July, 15 2015.