TO DOUCHE OR NOT TO DOUCHE?

To douche or not to douche? That is today’s intimate fitness™question.
by Nina Helms

Intimate fitness™ encompasses our intimate relationship with our mind, body and soul. This question is great as it offers us the opportunity to be reminded of what an amazing body we have and to get excited about its potential. I hope this awareness makes you even more proud to be a woman and enhances your confidence.

First a little anatomy lesson. The vagina is part of the internal structure of our reproductive organs and the vulva is the external portion comprised of the labia minora, labia major, clitoris and hood, mons pubis, vulval vestibule and the opening of the vagina. If you are unfamiliar with your anatomy, I highly recommend you get intimate with it. Here is a wonderful sketch that depicts where everything is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gyn_layout.jpg. We often incorrectly use the word vagina when referring to our outside anatomy.

The vagina is a miraculous space as we know from reproduction, but it is also is wonderfully self-protecting and self-cleansing – how Goddess is that!?!? To be more precise, the vagina has natural bacterial flora that maintains vaginal health, pH and provides infection prevention. Douching may disrupt this balance and allow for abnormal overgrowth of bacteria and yeast resulting in inflammation or infection. That irritation is regrettably familiar to over 75% of the female population at least once in our lives.

A douche is a solution designed to flush out and to cleanse the vagina. It was a contraceptive method in the 60s and 70s, but is no longer recommended to prevent pregnancy or for cleansing. We do not need to clean inside our vaginas, just as we don’t need a product to wash our spleen or kidneys. Nature beautifully takes care of its fitness for us. From where all of the Gynecologists I consult with sit, douches are a body care product that we simply do not need and which can even interfere with our body’s own natural defenses. With that said, you will not be seeing a product recommendation at the end of this piece.

We all know how detrimental to our sexy those below the waist irritations are, so if you sense that things are awry, please immediately consult with your Gynecologist or PCP. Yeast infections are sometimes actually bacterial or something else you may not know of. Self-diagnosing and treating is not wise or being intimately smart. Why would you trust your amazing reproductive and sexual organs to guess work and off the shelf products?

I will be sharing more great information on our vulvovaginal health in the near future. In the meantime, don’t forget to get acquainted with your wondrous anatomy that provides fun, pleasure, ecstasy and life force.