Vaginal Infections

One of the most common questions I get asked about is vaginal infections, literally everywhere I go and people know I’m a gynecologist I must get asked about “vaginitis”. If you are a woman with a Vagina then most likely you have experienced or will experience a type of vaginal infection, so here’s a bit of info about it that might be useful till you see a doctor.

First of all, its isn’t about cleanliness at all, you could be extremely clean and still get an infection down there or u could be the filthiest person on earth and not get one. It’s just that some women are more susceptible than others in getting the infection.

Secondly, please please please do not use vaginal douche, its OBSOLETE. It disrupts the normal natural environment that God created in the vagina, it kills the beneficial bacteria and alters the PH of the vagina that all leads to an infection.

Third, here are the most common infections that usually occurs:

If you have white cheese like discharge, then that’s a candida infection (type if fungus), its treatment is an anti-fungal drug and that’s it.

If you have fishy odor discharge that’s a trichomonas infection, and there are anti trichomonas tablets for that.

If you have greenish yellowish discharge, then that’s bacterial infection and you need an antibiotic for that.

Finally, In some severe cases if the infection keeps coming back we usually advice the woman do have a culture and sensitivity test (we take a sample of the secretions and send them to be investigated in the lab) to know the type of organism that caused the infection and we can be more specific in the type of antimicrobial we are giving.