Vaginal Microflora of the Healthy Vagina

There is much more than Lactobacillus strains in the healthy vaginal microflora.

In fact -get ready for this ladies, because it surprised the hell out of me.

It is possible to have a healthy vagina without ANY Lactobacilli present.¹

Sheesh! That trashes a few of my theories!

This 2005 study on 20 "healthy premenopausal women 27-44 years of age, not taking contraceptive steroids, and without complaints of urogenital symptoms or noticeable infection on physical examination of the urogenital tract" does seem to prove it.

The researchers were looking for vaginal bacteria. Amongst these 20 women, they found healthy vaginas that were populated with ONLY Lactobacillus strains and women with NO vaginal Lactobacillus.¹ And remember where talking about women with no bacterial vaginosis, no candida, no uti - this is the vaginal microflora of healthy women.

Out of these 20 women

• 4 had ONLY or virtually only Lactobacillus strains present
• 9 had COMPLEX MIXTURES of Lactobacillus and many other bacteria
• 7 had NONE or virtually no Lactobacillus species present¹

When the researchers combined their results with the results from 3 other recent studies on healthy vaginal microflora, they found

• 42% of women studied had virtually ONLY Lactobacillus in the vagina
• 31% of women studied had virtually NO Lactobacillus in the vagina¹

And it is possible for Gardnerella to live there without going crazy and running amock and making your life a misery.

Yogurt, supplements and vaginal bacteria

Is this, possibly, why some women respond so well to restoring Lactobacillus vaginal bacteria with yogurt or supplements and some women find it doesn't do a thing?

Maybe some vaginas simply don't WANT OR NEED the Lactobacillus strains lurking within the average yogurt.

Don't ever think that because you've tried one type of yogurt and it didn't work, that yogurt is not a cure that will work for you. Different yogurts contain different strains of Lactobacillus and one of them might well be the strain you need.

Be like me - loiter round the yogurt chiller in the supermarket reading labels until the manager tells you to either buy something or move on!

There are THOUSANDS of Lactobacillus strains (although you won't find most of them in yogurt) and the effect any one of them can have on any particular niche in your body can be totally different to another strain.

Each strain of Lactobacillus has its strengths and weaknesses. This applies to all of the probiotics.

One thing is clear, there will be some interesting results coming out over the next year or two. Hopefully, they translate into treatments that women can use to cure bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections.

REFERENCES

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