Table of contents:
Every woman wants to have a clean and healthy vagina. Therefore, many women routinely clean the vagina with bath soap. However, is cleaning the vagina using regular bath soap a healthy way?
Why shouldn't bath soap be used to clean the vagina?
Many women are not confident about the vaginal odor they have. Therefore, it is not uncommon for people to use bath soap, so that their miss V will smell good and clean.
In fact, using regular soap to clean the vagina is not a good thing. The reason is, ordinary soap can make the vagina infected, irritated, and even bacterial vaginosis. Why?
The vagina is the part of the body that has the most bacteria after the intestines. So, in the area around your vagina there are many bacteria. Even though you are surrounded by bacteria, you don't need to worry, because these bacteria are not harmful to vagina and actually play a role in protecting and maintaining your feminine health.
The good bacteria in the vagina, known as lactobacilli, have several roles, namely:
- Keeps the vaginal area acidic and has a low pH of less than 4.5. This is intended so that no other organisms can grow in your female area, so that vagina is not easily infected.
- Produces bacteriocin, which is a natural antibiotic that can kill other types of bacteria that enter the vagina.
- Produces a substance that can stop the growth of other bacteria in the vaginal wall.
Now, if you use ordinary soap to clean the vagina, what is there, the bacteria will die. And miss V you have no more protection to prevent infection due to bad bacteria.
In addition, the pH of bath soap is usually around 8, aka alkaline pH. When the pH in the vagina is disturbed and changes, there is a high risk of infection. This provides an opportunity for bad bacteria to live and grow around Miss V. Not to mention, soap has a pungent smell that your vagina doesn't really need. In fact, this fragrant aroma will make Miss V irritated and inflamed.
Then, how to clean the vagina properly?
Actually the vagina has the ability to clean itself. But, that doesn't mean you don't clean your vagina, huh. This is so that you should not clean the inside of the vagina, but the outside is definitely still you have to keep it clean
Feminine areas that are not cleaned regularly can still cause infection and irritation. Moreover, if you are entering your period or after having sex. At that time, the pH of your vagina is disturbed because blood and semen have an alkaline pH, which is above 7.
Because ordinary bath soap has a strong aroma and has an alkaline pH, it is not recommended to use it to clean the vagina. Instead, you can use a special cleanser for the feminine area that doesn't smell good, has a pH that matches Miss V, and most importantly contains povidone-iodine. Povidone-iodine is a substance that has been shown to treat bad bacteria, fungi, and parasites that cause vaginal itching and irritation.
And remember, when you wash your vagina, just clean the outside.
x
