Vaginal Hygiene

In this episode of For Vaginas Only, let's discuss vagina trends to let go of such as yoni pearls and vaginal steaming. What is the difference between the vagina vs the vulva. We also dive into safe sex tips, your period and More!

Transcript

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Hey, guys. Welcome to Episode 31 of four Vaginas only podcast. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about vaginal hygiene. Hello and welcome to four vaginas. Only the podcast about everything. Female. I'm your host, Dr Celestine, bringing you important information about understanding your health and body in the way you wish your doctor would actually explain it. All right, now, this is a hot topic. No matter how many times I talk about this on Instagram, in different aspects of my podcast, everybody still wants to know more whether you're a listener and I don't know you personally or my friends and family. It's a very important topic that a lot of people still have questions about. And they want to understand more about how to take care of their vagina. And I can't blame them. Taking care of your vagina is part of self care. It's very important. So ask all the questions you need to ask and find the information that you need to find from credible sources. I'm gonna start by saying here, do not use those Yoni pearls. Don't put herbs in your vagina. Please. Vaginal steaming doesn't really do anything. Don't believe all the things that you read on the Internet, please use credible sources like your actual physician. Um, this podcast, if you like Thio Although I'm not your actual doctor, I am a trained physician and these are medically based opinions, so let's jump right into it. All right? So when we're talking about vaginal hygiene, what we first have to do is define the vagina and what should be cleaned. Now, I'm gonna tell you guys, even this podcast title is a misnomer. I actually tricked you guys a little bit. The vagina is not actually what we're cleaning. Okay? The vagina is the internal aspect of the whole genital area. It's actually the tube shaped inside internal part. That's where the babies come out of. That's where the Penis goes into when you have sex. And this part is actually self cleaning. He does. It's cleaning with discharge. And unless something is wrong, that discharge should always be white to clear, it should be minimal. Sometimes people have a little bit of a moderate discharge, and it has minimal to no odor. Let me clear this up right now. No vagina smells like cookies, sunshine and rainbows and flowers. None of them all vaginas have some sort of odor. But the odor should not be a bad odor and it should not be overpowering. When we're talking about the hygiene, the actual cleaning, What I'm talking about is the vulva. This is what we're gonna be mainly discussing today. It's the outside part of the female general area, and it includes the pubic bone, which we refer to medically as the Monza pubis. It also includes your labia. The outer labia is the part that has hair grows hair on it. The inner labia usually has minimal to no hair. And also the clitoris is actually part of the outer part of the vagina. The clitoral hood is what you'll mostly see if you're not aroused. All right. Now, even though we're gonna be talking about how to clean the vulva and the outer area of the of the genital organs, let's do touch on the vagina just a little bit first and foremost No, Do Shing, I don't know how many times I have to say this and I will continue staying in every podcast and every conversation I have. Do Shing is bad. You cannot give me a single reason why you need to do sh And it actually will be correct, because do she should not happen. And there's no reason for Duchin that ever exists. Okay, period movie on Ah, healthy diet is important for vaginal health as well. A balanced diet just says it is important for every aspect of your body, including your skin, your hair, your nails, things like that. It's also very important for vaginal health. Um, not too much sweets, not too much sugar, just the general things that most people follow. Also, lots of fluids, including increasing your water and taking things like that is also good for maintaining a healthy vagina. Safe sex. Okay, so using condoms to prevent STDs is very, very important and also using the proper lubrication for sex if you need it, or even if you just desire it. No oil based lubrication know petroleum jelly. No, Vasselin do not use that as lubrication for sex. It can cause condoms to break and could even contribute to some infections. It's funny. Just the other day I was watching the on Tiffany had ish comedy special on Netflix, the new one, and she's talking about putting mayonnaise on her vagina, and I almost screamed of screaming internally, I almost screamed externally. Do not use anything like this on your vagina, People okay for lubrication you're just gonna be using, um, Lupe's, such as Astro Glide or K Y jellies. These are much more amenable to condom use and to decrease any type of infection. See your gynecologist every year, just like someone like me. It's very important just for health maintenance, something's you won't even realize are wrong or things that are going on with your vagina. If you're not looking at it all the time and your gynecologist, you can talk to them about all your different questions and all so they can see if there's anything going on that you might not have noticed. Swap condoms out. If you're doing different type of different types of sexual activity, such as if you're going from vaginal to anal sex. Oral sex, do not use the same condom for all of these. You have to switch it out. You should always be wiping from front to back, not putting any anal contents into the vaginal or labia or external genital area, because your you could be infecting that area. When you're using tampons and pads, it's important that you're not using anything that has a sent. A lot of people are allergic or have sensitivities to fragrances and cents. So not only with pads and tampons, but also using lotions. And things like that should not be lotions and scented oil should not be going in the vagina by any means. If you're gonna use lotion, make sure it's a uncensored or mild lotion and only use it on the outside labia and pubic bone or manz area for tampons and pads. Have you guys ever read the Tampax box? It actually says that you should not have a tampon inside the vagina for any more than eight hours, and I would actually recommend taking it out sooner than that. A lot of times you can tell if your tampon is full. Sometimes people get a little bit more cramped, be something starts to leak around the tampon. Take it out at that time and switch to a new one. Even for using a pat. Don't let it get to full before changing it. You do not want to keep anything moist around the labia or inside of vagina for too long of a period of time because that can lead to infection. All right, let's talk about the actual cleaning. So you are going to need part of her. General hygiene is washing the vulva in the outer external area. You should be showering every day and part of that daily shower. You should be washing the vulva and the external area of your genitals. So this does not include putting anything inside the actual vaginal canal, Not even water. Okay, but on the outside, you should be washing with plain water. And if you want to use some sort of soap, use an uncensored ID soap. I do not recommend using any of your body wash that you put on the little poof. Don't use that on the vagina. My favorite thing to recommend personally for involve our cleaning is the dove sensitive skin bath bar. It's a bar soap for sensitive skin. It has no fragrance, too. It has no perfumes and just is a little bit of that with some water. Spread your legs in the shower little and splash it around on the outer part of the vulva. Okay, because splitting your legs kind of spreads the vulva little bit. So you get the external evolve. Ah, um which is the outer labia and the into inner labia as well. So it gets it all up in there. You don't have to scrub excessively. Just splash it around and make sure that all of the soap when you're done splashing is out of that area. Um, And then when you come out of the shower, just pat dry with a towel and make sure that the outer vulva and the Manz area are dry, and that's basically all you have to do it to clean daily. Now some general maintenance health maintenance stuff for that area. One. When it comes to underwear, any brand new underwear that you've bought, make sure that you wash it prior toe wearing it. You don't know who was trying it out in the store. You know who's touched it inappropriately era. You you just don't know. Okay, so wash it at home with just your regular detergent that, you know, you don't have any allergy to and use that dry it in the dryer, dry it on the line before you start to wear it. Make sure the underwear that you're wearing most of the time at least I mean, we all love our little slinky thongs and things like that. I'm not immune to that as well. But most of the underwear that you wear, even thongs, can have a caught in crotch lining. And that keeps air flow in the vagina at the labia level of your genitals in order to keep them clean and dry. No tight fitting underwear, no tight fitting pants or closed in that area as well. Basically, the more air that gets to the labia, the better. Even some people sleep without underwear at night, which I actually recommend. Um, that keeps the air circulating down there, and then you can put your underwear back on in the daytime. If you feel like it, two more things I'll touch on for cleansing. Now I do not recommend using any type of special cleanser for the vagina, but I will say that if you work out a lot like I d'oh Um, and let's say you're not always going from working out to showering, Let's see, going from working out straight toe work or working out to doing your daily activities. You still want to clean all that sweat away from the vaginal area. You can use unscented sensitive skin cleansing wipes, too, that some people recommend are the summer's Eve sensitive skin cleansing wipe and also the Lola cleansing Wipe. These both have no fragrances, no perfumes. And if you're not able to get into a shower and clean with that dove sensitive bath bar or just plain water, then you can use one of these wife's until you can get to showering. And that's your basic valve are and vaginal health and hygiene. That's it. Although a lot of people say that women are complicated, the Volvo on the vagina are not that complicated. That's all you need to do to keep it clean and make sure that you're healthy in that area. And if you have any concerns whatsoever, any questions, make sure you see your gynecologist. Um, before that we wrap up this episode. I do also want to touch on u T. I is very quickly. So lot of people want to know what to do to prevent getting a U. T. I. A couple of little tips that it's not gonna prevent it for everybody. Some people are prone to UT eyes some people, no matter what they do, you know they keep getting them, and I recommend talking to your doctor if you fall in that category. But a couple of things to prevent it are some that I already mentioned. Increasing your fluid consumption, increasing your water intake, making sure you're wiping from front to back whenever you go to the bathroom, not back to front. Do not put any anal products or anal secretions towards the vagina. That is bad. Do not do sh and do not use any type of personal or hygiene products that have any fragrances. Where. Cotton underwear, loose underwear. Some extra things, though. Avoid or P immediately, before and after you have sex. That can help to prevent UT eyes. And also make sure that you are going to the bathroom every few hours while you're awake like every 2 to 3 hours or so. Some people talk about cranberry juice that's, you know, a very common thing. Cranberry juice, preventing UT eyes and actually there may be some sort of relevance to it. To date, there still studies that are just very inconclusive about whether cranberry juice or cranberry products actually reduce your chances of getting UT eyes. However, it's not gonna hurt. So a lot of those over the counter cranberry products from drinking cranberry juice in general might be helpful. Also, there is some scientific evidence that probiotics can be helpful as well. So as long as there's with these medications little harm, then there's no reason why you shouldn't try it and see if it works for you. But, as always, makes sure that anything, any supplement, even that you're taking, even if it's over the counter, make sure you clear it with your physician because they're the ones that know your health best better than me in this situation, any way I can only speak in general terms, and that's it for me on this episode of Vaginal Hygiene, which should really be evolve our hygiene. But it's not as catchy to use the word vulva. So thank you guys for listening to this for vaginas only. Podcast episode. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you have any comments, you can write them on four vaginas only dot com. You can de Emmy or make comments on my post on four vaginas only on Instagram and Facebook, and I will see you guys soon in the next episode. But by