Vaginal DischargesDon't you just hate them! Vaginal discharges seem to come with the territory if you're a woman. I doubt if there is a woman alive who hasn't at some point got one of the motley collection of vaginal infections that like to make our life a misery. Many women attempt to diagnose these themselves and can end up making the problem worse. Several of the urogenital infections are very similar in the symptoms they present - so much so that even doctors mistreat them quite regularly. Many doctors treat almost every discharge as if it was bacterial vaginosis, and only if that treatment fails to work, do they move onto considering other causes. So we're fighting not only the infection, but the doctors misguided attempts at treatment and very often our OWN desire to "handle this our self". Often, we can do it ourselves but first of all you have to know which infection you're fighting. A quick wander through the forums will show that many, many women are struggling to find a lasting cure to this problem. Infections in the vulvovaginal area come with an assortment of names and treatments. What cures one will not cure another. So - if you've got any sort of discharge that you're worried about, go to your doctor or health clinic and find out what it is. Hopefully, they will have a swab analysed so that identification is certain. Bacterial vaginosis is caused by one of several different bacteria, so anti-FUNGAL agents will not cure it. The vaginal discharge increases and is often thin and milk like. Might be greyish. Candidiasis, commonly called vaginal yeast infection, is caused by a fungi, so anti-BACTERIAL agents will not cure it. (Although some natural remedies use substances that are both anti-bacterial and anti-fungal.) A thick white vaginal discharge often appears. Cottage cheese like and inclined to coat the walls of the vagina. Trichomoniasis is another of the bacterial infections, often appears with bacterial vaginosis. Sometimes the discharge is frothy and greenish. Sometimes it is more yellow. And in around 50% of cases there is no discharge. And Cytolytic vaginosis is caused by an overgrowth of Lactobacilli so anti-FUNGAL agents will not cure it. An abundant white discharge. You can see how easy it is to actively make things worse by treating for the wrong cause. There are other causes of vaginal discharges but those are the most common. And there is, of course, the perfectly normal vaginal discharge that all women have. This can vary throughout the month from whitish to clear and stretchy. Nothing to worry about there. Some vaginal infections can be treated with natural home remedies but you simply have to know what it is you're treating. What I personally did when I got a case of what turned out be bv is, I took the antibiotic prescribed by the doctor (metronidazole), got rid of the offending bacteria (and the smell -yay!) and then before the little bleeders could return - because given half a chance they do - I treated myself with yogurt to increase the lactobacilli present so that there were no easy lodgings up for grabs in my nether-regions. And it worked. I was one of the lucky ones who never got a relapse. Now I have friends that have suffered dozens of infections. I'm convinced that if the first infection is misdiagnosed then later treatments become more complex because some women, in their desperation, are trying dozens of different home remedies one after the other with little time lapse between. So, the first rule of vaginal discharges is be very sure of what you're treating before you do anything. It is so easy to make things worse.
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