10 Intimate Hygiene Mistakes You Didn’t Know About

1. Use of intimate hygiene products in the vaginal area

The most common mistake! Try to clean this area with intimate hygiene products. Under no circumstances should this be done. So you violate the pH of the vagina, provoke a change in the microflora towards the development of pathogenic microorganisms. This is a direct path to bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis, vaginal dryness. Intimate hygiene products are intended exclusively for cleansing the external genitalia.

2. Washing with water only

Wash at least twice a day with a cleanser. This is the only way to remove the remnants of secretions from the surface of the external genitalia. Water can be washed away during the day after visiting the toilet.

3. Using a bidet

A directed stream of water that enters the vagina is always bad. The same goes for the shower jet. It washes out the natural environment of the vagina, which can disturb the pH and microflora.

4. Use of intimate hygiene products with plant extracts

For some reason, it is believed that if the products contain infusions of chamomile or calendula, which have an anti-inflammatory effect, then they are more suitable for intimate hygiene. By no means! Firstly, if a woman is healthy, why does she need anti-inflammatory components in her products. Secondly, plant extracts, even the most beneficial ones, can cause irritation in the intimate area.

5. Treatment of any diseases with the help of intimate hygiene products

The fact that such drugs reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases or any inflammatory diseases of the vagina is not true. They do not contain medicinal ingredients. And attempts to use them as a medicine end up with a woman coming to the doctor with an advanced stage of the disease. And instead of candidiasis, the doctor has to treat bacterial vaginosis.

6. Use products with lactic acid on an ongoing basis

Be sure to consult with your doctor whether you need such funds or not. This acid provokes the reproduction of yeast, and this causes candidiasis.

7. Attempts to remove odor with more thorough intimate hygiene

If the cause is in some disease, for example, vaginosis, then there will be no effect. In my practice, I often come across cases when a woman chooses a means for caring for her intimate area for a long time, changes one for another, trying to mask the smell. There is no effect, the disease progresses. As a result, such a woman comes to the doctor with an illness in an advanced stage.

8. The desire to moisturize the intimate area with washing gels or foams

The mucosa of the external genital organs does not dry out, if there are no predisposing factors from health. In young girls, it may be polycystic ovaries, in older women, the first signs of menopause. In this case, I advise you to consult a doctor and take tests for hormones, do an ultrasound.

9. Striving for hyper-purity

This has a detrimental effect on lactobacilli living in the vagina. These microorganisms secrete lactic acid, thereby suppressing the reproduction of pathogenic bacteria. With frequent washing, and even with soap, this natural protection is destroyed. It is enough to take a shower twice a day using a suitable detergent.

10. Wrong direction of washing

Everyone seems to know that it is necessary to clean the intimate area from front to back. This is important so that nothing from the anus gets into the vagina and external genitalia. What is the risk? Violation of the microflora of the vagina, various diseases of an inflammatory nature. There is nothing difficult in observing this rule, it is just a matter of habit and technique. We apply detergent (make sure that it does not get into the vagina!), direct the jet from front to back and help with the free hand to wash these areas in the same direction – first the intimate area, then the anus.

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