April 17, 2013 • 17 mins
Is bacterial vaginosis a sexually transmitted infection? What is the treatment for bacterial vaginosis, and what prevention methods are available? Join Cristen and Caroline for a quick course in bacterial vaginosis 101.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Stuff Mom Never told You from House top
works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Kristen and I'm Caroline, and today we are talking about
bacterial vaginosis. And I realized at this point people might
be putting their fingers in their ears, which would require
(00:25):
them taking their earbuds out of their ears, because bacterial
vaginosis doesn't sound like the funnest topic in the world,
but it is something that women need to know about, right, Caroline, Right,
it's a very very common condition, and it's actually vaginitis
in general is sort of an umbrella term for a
lot of common conditions that women experience. But let's break
(00:49):
it down for you now. So what is bacterial vaginosis.
It's when the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina
get disrupted and replaced by an overgrowth of certain other
kinds of bacteria. And this is sometimes accompanied by discharge, odor, pain, itching,
and burning. And when you say that it's common, Caroline,
(01:09):
it is in fact the most common vaginal infection in
women of child bearing age. Older female listeners hit menopause
high five, you are out of the risk of b
v but um for women of childbearing age it is
very much uh, something that happens to the vagina. But
(01:32):
even though doctors have known about b V since NIVE
when it was first identified, there's still a lot of
mystery about its ideology and how it comes about. But
they know that it's associated with the decrease in lacto
back silly I in the vagina and the subsequent overgrowth
(01:54):
of anaerobic polymicrobials, At which point I'm sure everyone's like, oh,
that makes so much sense. It says, darn poly microbials. Again, Well,
what we're saying is in lay terms, it's an increase
in the pH in the vagina. This also happens that
the PAH will change naturally in the vagina every month
whenever your menstrual cycle comes around. Things up and down.
(02:16):
That's why we talk a lot about the the ecosystem
of the vagina that bacterial balance, because it's not so
hard for things to get a little bit out of wax.
It's like having your very own terrarium. So you might
be worried about what is a risk factor and what
is not. Certain things do increase your risks, such as
having a new sex partner or multiple sex partners, and
(02:40):
as we will get into and as we have talked
about before, with a stern finger wagging, don't douche. Douche, Yes,
down with a douche, but something that doesn't increase your
risk that you don't have to worry about. Toilet seats.
I know we have a lot of very toilet seat
phobic listeners out there, but also betting and swimming pools,
So feel free to jump in that swimming pool this summer.
(03:02):
And here is yet another part where you might want
to prepare yourself for a little bit of unpleasantness coming
into your ears. And that is the signs and symptoms
of BEV, which include abnormal white or grayish discharge and
the hallmark symptom strong fish like odor. Yeah, and that
(03:23):
might I mean you might feel like, oh gosh, I
should douche if it smells weird. No, if it smells weird,
you should go to your doctor. Yes, And we'll get
more into vaginal odors. I know you can't wait, you
can't wait, but we'll get more into vaginal odors because
vaginas have a smell yea as the penises, but this
is a particular smell that is a sign that something
(03:45):
is off in your underpan Stereeum, yes, we need to
make a T shirt. But if you are pregnant or
undergoing a hysterectomy or an abortion, BEV is something that
you definitely want to be aware of. You might want
to get screened for it. In fact, and not to
sound too alarmists, but BEV also increases a woman's susceptibility
(04:06):
to HIV and sexually transmitted diseases and increases the chances
that an HIV infected woman can pass that HIV along
to her partner, So you definitely want to be on
the lookout for this. The treatment for it is pretty straightforward.
It's antibiotics, um, and you want to make sure, as
always with antibiotics, that you finish your dose. If you're like, oh, hey,
(04:31):
fish shoulder is gone, I've got a few pills left,
but I don't need those. No, you want to finish
it because you want to lower that risk of recurrent
b V, which can happen, but if you take the antibiotics,
you are helping to ward it off for longer, and
other ways that you can lower that risk is keeping
the bacteria balance by washing your vagina and your anus
(04:51):
with soap every day. Wiping from front to back and
keeping the area cool. I feel like there's a song
in there about wiping from front to back and keep
the area cool. There you go, that's a vagina jingle.
And again, don't do Should we talk about douching? Why
shouldn't douche? Let's talk about it. Yeah, we've talked about
(05:12):
it in one of my favorite episodes of Stuff, I'm
Never told you down with the douche um. The reason
why you don't want to douche, among many others, is
that it removes the normal bacteria from the vagina, and
in removing that bacteria, you can disrupt that ecosystem and
those harmful bacteria can come in and then lead to
(05:34):
b V. And you also want to have regular pelvic
exams as well, so you have an expert, you know,
a ductor nurse practitioner helping you keep everything in check.
So an American Journal of Epidemiology study in July two
thousand eight looked at douching practices among women and which
came first? You know? They said that douching is practiced
more often by women who had bevy. But it's a
(05:57):
chicken in the egg. Which came first? Does the douche
and caused the BEV or just the b V lead
women to douche. They adjusted for women who douched in
response to b V symptoms and found a significant increase
in the risk of b V for participants who did,
in fact douche. They also found that the odds of
b V reduced seventy seven percent when these women stopped douching. Yeah, therefore,
(06:19):
douching has been established as an independent risk factor for
bacterial vaginosis. So you know the reason why some women
still douche is so they think it's something good for
their vaginas, in fact, it is not. It is just
the opposite of that, correct increasing your risk for a
bacterial infection. So, now that we've given you a clinical
(06:40):
overview of what b V is, let's take a quick break, Caroline,
and when we come back, we'll get into some more
details about certain risk factors and other ways to lower
your chances of developing bacterial vaginosis. So we're back, and
the next shin to tackle with b V is whether
(07:02):
or not it is a sexually transmitted disease because it's
associated with sex partners. Like you said, Caroline, one of
the risk factors for developing b V is new sex partners,
having multiple sex partners, not using condom, stuff like that.
So if it's associated with sex, does that make BV
an STD Well, yes and no. It can be sexually transmitted,
(07:27):
but it's not necessarily the same kind of STD R
S t I that we think of when we typically
think of one. So there was a two thousand one
study in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. It's a pretty
upfront title of a of a journal. They looked at
nearly nine thousand women under the age of forty five
and found that the b V prevalence was twelve point
nine per cent. And they found in looking at these
(07:50):
women that risk factors included some that were in common
with contracting gonorrhea and chlamydia. Those included having more than
one sexual partner in the past three months, having a
history of bacterial sexually transmitted infections, and being of black
or Caribbean ethnicity, and living in a deprived area. But
bacterial vaginisis did have a contrasting age profile and was
(08:14):
most prevalent among women over thirty. In fact, yeah, this
has been a puzzle for medical researchers because when BAB
was first described in nineteen fifty five by a pair
of doctors. They classified it as a sexually transmitted infection
because they isolated a certain type of bacteria which was
(08:34):
found not only in the female patients but also in
the male contexts as they were called of those female cases.
So they assumed, oh, well this, you know, there's a
common bacteria between these men and women who are having sex.
Therefore this must be an s t I. But it
is now known that that type of bacteria occurs in
(08:54):
up to fifty of women without b V as well.
You can have never had sexual intercourse before and still
develop bb right, Yeah, so there must be other factors
other than sexual activity there that are important in developing
that condition. So, yeah, while other activities than sexual activity
(09:16):
can be important in the development of the condition, it
can in fact be spread by sexual partners. It can
be spread between female sex partners, whereas male partners generally
don't need to be treated. Yeah. In fact, lesbian couples
might be at a greater risk of passing b V
back and forth because that bacteria might be in one
(09:37):
vagina and then to another vagina with the contact, and
then you have it going back and forth, and there
have been studies finding higher rates of b B among
lesbian couples. So that's something to keep in mind. Yeah,
I mean, now that we have possibly given you some
things to worry about. Um, just keep in mind really
that if your normal vaginal scent, because like we said,
(10:00):
everybody has a normal smell, but if your normal vaginal
scent changes, if it suddenly becomes much stronger or seems foul,
you should definitely get it checked out, and you should
not leave it untreated because it can recur. Yeah, a
lot of times the change in scent is caused by
something like b V, chlamydia, gnaia, pelvic inflammatory disease, poor hygiene.
(10:24):
I might be a forgotten tampon that does happen, turcomaniasis
which is the most common type of s p I,
or a yeast infection. But I do want to underscore though,
that vaginas have a normal scent. If someone if you
have a sex partner who is simply shaming you for
your genitals having a scent, then that issue is with
(10:47):
that sex partner, not with your vagina or whatever you
might have. Right, But I mean having having b V
having odor issues, it actually can have quite a toll
on people. There was this study in the Journal of
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in February that found that
(11:08):
recurrent b V is associated with psycho social issues not
addressed during a typical office visit. Women who frequently experience these, uh,
you know, the strong vaginal odor and they don't take
care of it and maybe they're just douching to cover
it up, they reported feelings of shame and embarrassment that
often caused them to engage in these hyper vigilant hygiene
(11:29):
routines that negatively affect their relationships, both professional and personal. Yeah,
and it makes a lot of sense that a someone
might not go get b V checked out right away
because a lot of times when it manifests, there aren't
any outward symptoms, and you might think, oh, well, if
if it recurred a lot of times, the a lot
of times the odor will arise after intercourse, and so
(11:52):
you might think, oh, well, maybe it has to do
with semen or simply the sweat that can happen when
two bodies I'll rubbing up against each or you know,
plenty of other things, and there can be a certain
amount of shame that can come along without saying like
I don't really want to have to go talk to
a stranger about my vagina, but again, you know that's
(12:14):
what doctors and nurses nurse practitioners are. Therefore, you know,
if you have an issue, go take care of it. Yeah.
And so this study really urged proper education, advice, and
support because bacterial vagin is is is perpetuated by lifestyle
practices that lead to recurrent infection. I mean, if you're
ashamed and you don't know who to talk to or
(12:35):
what it is and how to deal with it, that
a lot of people experience it, you know, you might
never seek treatment and it just keep getting it and
it keeps getting worse. Yeah, And that education factor is
one of the main reasons why we wanted to do
uh this episode on a maybe not so delightful topic
to talk about because, uh, you know, I'm twenty eight
and only recently found out about b V even though
(12:57):
it is the most common form of vaginal and action
in women. And when we were looking up sources on this,
I feel like, you you have to know what it
is in order to find good information. You know, It's
not like it's something that in the same way that
we might think of a yeast infection or an STD
like herpes or chlamydia. Oh, we would know just inherently
(13:20):
to go like look for that and look for those
risk factors. Um. I don't think that women are as
aware of b V as maybe they should be. So
I have that hope that maybe this helps, because it
could be alarming if you don't know what's going on
and all of a sudden there's a change down there,
then you might think that something is wrong with you
and just be embarrassed. Whereas, oh, you know, it's a
(13:42):
pH shift, there's some bacteria, gets some antibiotics done. So
I hope this was helpful. And one final takeaway tip
though that we found from go ask Alice that we
reference all the time from Columbia University bubble bath fans,
you might want to be aware how much soap you're
putting in those bubble baths because heavily perfumed or died
(14:06):
soaps can also irritate the vagina. Yeah, they recommended maybe
taking a shower and soaping up first, and then taking
a soapless soap in a very clean tub. It makes
you wonder if we should do an episode on the
days oh man, that makes me think of crocodile dundee. Well,
on that note, let us know your thoughts right to
(14:27):
us mom Stuff at Discovery dot com about bacterial vagidoses,
bubble bass, the days, crocodile dundee, any of it, whatever
your heart desires, mom Stuff at Discovery dot com, or
you can also hit us up on Facebook and tweet
us at Mom's Stuff podcast. But right quick, we've got
a couple of emails to share with. Okay, I have
(14:49):
a message here from Robin about our school uniforms episode.
She said, I just wanted to drop in and say
that I was one of those kids that desperately wanted
uniforms when I was in school. I was a really
overweight kid with terrible self esteem, so picking clothes in
the morning was torture for me. I was so angry
that my high school adopted them the years after I graduated.
But now I work as a co teacher a fancy
(15:11):
way of saying teacher assistant at an elementary school, and
I still think there should be uniforms. But for the staff.
You wouldn't believe how unprofessional looking teachers can be. If
given the chance. Uniforms would not only make us look better,
but help us feel like more a team. Similar reasoning
to what's given about students, teachers can be as disjointed
(15:31):
and spiteful to each other as the kids. Honestly, I mean,
if other workplaces have uniforms for staff, is it such
a huge stretch? I don't think it is, so thanks
Robin Well, I've got one here from Tara, also about
dress codes outside of secondary school. So she writes, I
never had any problems with dress codes until college, and
(15:53):
now I've had my fair share of difficulties. I'm currently
in my last semester of nursing school and being in
a professional program. I under stand that a stricter dress
code sets it apart, but the dress code is meant
to promote cleanliness and professionalism. I got written up for
wearing a headband in the clinical setting. My instructor's reasonings
were that it's against dress code and that an angry
(16:13):
patient could strangle me with it, being very diligent. I
reread the student handbook and found no mention of the
illicitness of headbands, So my mistake I or another headband
making sure it was more discreet and not enclose. Well,
it turns out I had disrespected her authority, which was
not my intention at all, and I got dragged into
multiple interrogations and had the event recorded in my file. Meanwhile,
(16:36):
the woman who had primary red hair didn't have any
problems with anyone, even though unnatural hair colors were in
fact forbidden. So my takeaway was that I feel that
some of the difficulty with dress codes in high school
or college is that there is so much subjectivity involved.
One instructor may have no issue with what you wear,
being more lenient, while another could overreact. So good luck
(17:00):
to Tara for the rest of her nursing school. I
guess just don't wear those headbands, Sarah. I think that's
the takeaway. Try Barrett, try bobby pins. Don't lose them
in a patient. So again, if you want to write
to us mom Stuff at Discovery dot com, it's our
email address. You can send us a message on Facebook
like a stair while you're at it. Also follow us
(17:20):
on Twitter, Mom Stuff podcast and on tumbler as well.
It's stuff Mom Never Told You dot tumblr dot com.
And if you want to know how vaginas work, you
can read that very article by Miss Molly Edmonds at
how stuff works dot com for more on this and
(17:41):
thousands of other topics. Does it How stuff works dot Com.
Welcome to Stuff Mom Never told You from House top
works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Kristen and I'm Caroline, and today we are talking about
bacterial vaginosis. And I realized at this point people might
be putting their fingers in their ears, which would require
(00:25):
them taking their earbuds out of their ears, because bacterial
vaginosis doesn't sound like the funnest topic in the world,
but it is something that women need to know about, right, Caroline, Right,
it's a very very common condition, and it's actually vaginitis
in general is sort of an umbrella term for a
lot of common conditions that women experience. But let's break
(00:49):
it down for you now. So what is bacterial vaginosis.
It's when the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina
get disrupted and replaced by an overgrowth of certain other
kinds of bacteria. And this is sometimes accompanied by discharge, odor, pain, itching,
and burning. And when you say that it's common, Caroline,
(01:09):
it is in fact the most common vaginal infection in
women of child bearing age. Older female listeners hit menopause
high five, you are out of the risk of b
v but um for women of childbearing age it is
very much uh, something that happens to the vagina. But
(01:32):
even though doctors have known about b V since NIVE
when it was first identified, there's still a lot of
mystery about its ideology and how it comes about. But
they know that it's associated with the decrease in lacto
back silly I in the vagina and the subsequent overgrowth
(01:54):
of anaerobic polymicrobials, At which point I'm sure everyone's like, oh,
that makes so much sense. It says, darn poly microbials. Again, Well,
what we're saying is in lay terms, it's an increase
in the pH in the vagina. This also happens that
the PAH will change naturally in the vagina every month
whenever your menstrual cycle comes around. Things up and down.
(02:16):
That's why we talk a lot about the the ecosystem
of the vagina that bacterial balance, because it's not so
hard for things to get a little bit out of wax.
It's like having your very own terrarium. So you might
be worried about what is a risk factor and what
is not. Certain things do increase your risks, such as
having a new sex partner or multiple sex partners, and
(02:40):
as we will get into and as we have talked
about before, with a stern finger wagging, don't douche. Douche, Yes,
down with a douche, but something that doesn't increase your
risk that you don't have to worry about. Toilet seats.
I know we have a lot of very toilet seat
phobic listeners out there, but also betting and swimming pools,
So feel free to jump in that swimming pool this summer.
(03:02):
And here is yet another part where you might want
to prepare yourself for a little bit of unpleasantness coming
into your ears. And that is the signs and symptoms
of BEV, which include abnormal white or grayish discharge and
the hallmark symptom strong fish like odor. Yeah, and that
(03:23):
might I mean you might feel like, oh gosh, I
should douche if it smells weird. No, if it smells weird,
you should go to your doctor. Yes, And we'll get
more into vaginal odors. I know you can't wait, you
can't wait, but we'll get more into vaginal odors because
vaginas have a smell yea as the penises, but this
is a particular smell that is a sign that something
(03:45):
is off in your underpan Stereeum, yes, we need to
make a T shirt. But if you are pregnant or
undergoing a hysterectomy or an abortion, BEV is something that
you definitely want to be aware of. You might want
to get screened for it. In fact, and not to
sound too alarmists, but BEV also increases a woman's susceptibility
(04:06):
to HIV and sexually transmitted diseases and increases the chances
that an HIV infected woman can pass that HIV along
to her partner, So you definitely want to be on
the lookout for this. The treatment for it is pretty straightforward.
It's antibiotics, um, and you want to make sure, as
always with antibiotics, that you finish your dose. If you're like, oh, hey,
(04:31):
fish shoulder is gone, I've got a few pills left,
but I don't need those. No, you want to finish
it because you want to lower that risk of recurrent
b V, which can happen, but if you take the antibiotics,
you are helping to ward it off for longer, and
other ways that you can lower that risk is keeping
the bacteria balance by washing your vagina and your anus
(04:51):
with soap every day. Wiping from front to back and
keeping the area cool. I feel like there's a song
in there about wiping from front to back and keep
the area cool. There you go, that's a vagina jingle.
And again, don't do Should we talk about douching? Why
shouldn't douche? Let's talk about it. Yeah, we've talked about
(05:12):
it in one of my favorite episodes of Stuff, I'm
Never told you down with the douche um. The reason
why you don't want to douche, among many others, is
that it removes the normal bacteria from the vagina, and
in removing that bacteria, you can disrupt that ecosystem and
those harmful bacteria can come in and then lead to
(05:34):
b V. And you also want to have regular pelvic
exams as well, so you have an expert, you know,
a ductor nurse practitioner helping you keep everything in check.
So an American Journal of Epidemiology study in July two
thousand eight looked at douching practices among women and which
came first? You know? They said that douching is practiced
more often by women who had bevy. But it's a
(05:57):
chicken in the egg. Which came first? Does the douche
and caused the BEV or just the b V lead
women to douche. They adjusted for women who douched in
response to b V symptoms and found a significant increase
in the risk of b V for participants who did,
in fact douche. They also found that the odds of
b V reduced seventy seven percent when these women stopped douching. Yeah, therefore,
(06:19):
douching has been established as an independent risk factor for
bacterial vaginosis. So you know the reason why some women
still douche is so they think it's something good for
their vaginas, in fact, it is not. It is just
the opposite of that, correct increasing your risk for a
bacterial infection. So, now that we've given you a clinical
(06:40):
overview of what b V is, let's take a quick break, Caroline,
and when we come back, we'll get into some more
details about certain risk factors and other ways to lower
your chances of developing bacterial vaginosis. So we're back, and
the next shin to tackle with b V is whether
(07:02):
or not it is a sexually transmitted disease because it's
associated with sex partners. Like you said, Caroline, one of
the risk factors for developing b V is new sex partners,
having multiple sex partners, not using condom, stuff like that.
So if it's associated with sex, does that make BV
an STD Well, yes and no. It can be sexually transmitted,
(07:27):
but it's not necessarily the same kind of STD R
S t I that we think of when we typically
think of one. So there was a two thousand one
study in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. It's a pretty
upfront title of a of a journal. They looked at
nearly nine thousand women under the age of forty five
and found that the b V prevalence was twelve point
nine per cent. And they found in looking at these
(07:50):
women that risk factors included some that were in common
with contracting gonorrhea and chlamydia. Those included having more than
one sexual partner in the past three months, having a
history of bacterial sexually transmitted infections, and being of black
or Caribbean ethnicity, and living in a deprived area. But
bacterial vaginisis did have a contrasting age profile and was
(08:14):
most prevalent among women over thirty. In fact, yeah, this
has been a puzzle for medical researchers because when BAB
was first described in nineteen fifty five by a pair
of doctors. They classified it as a sexually transmitted infection
because they isolated a certain type of bacteria which was
(08:34):
found not only in the female patients but also in
the male contexts as they were called of those female cases.
So they assumed, oh, well this, you know, there's a
common bacteria between these men and women who are having sex.
Therefore this must be an s t I. But it
is now known that that type of bacteria occurs in
(08:54):
up to fifty of women without b V as well.
You can have never had sexual intercourse before and still
develop bb right, Yeah, so there must be other factors
other than sexual activity there that are important in developing
that condition. So, yeah, while other activities than sexual activity
(09:16):
can be important in the development of the condition, it
can in fact be spread by sexual partners. It can
be spread between female sex partners, whereas male partners generally
don't need to be treated. Yeah. In fact, lesbian couples
might be at a greater risk of passing b V
back and forth because that bacteria might be in one
(09:37):
vagina and then to another vagina with the contact, and
then you have it going back and forth, and there
have been studies finding higher rates of b B among
lesbian couples. So that's something to keep in mind. Yeah,
I mean, now that we have possibly given you some
things to worry about. Um, just keep in mind really
that if your normal vaginal scent, because like we said,
(10:00):
everybody has a normal smell, but if your normal vaginal
scent changes, if it suddenly becomes much stronger or seems foul,
you should definitely get it checked out, and you should
not leave it untreated because it can recur. Yeah, a
lot of times the change in scent is caused by
something like b V, chlamydia, gnaia, pelvic inflammatory disease, poor hygiene.
(10:24):
I might be a forgotten tampon that does happen, turcomaniasis
which is the most common type of s p I,
or a yeast infection. But I do want to underscore though,
that vaginas have a normal scent. If someone if you
have a sex partner who is simply shaming you for
your genitals having a scent, then that issue is with
(10:47):
that sex partner, not with your vagina or whatever you
might have. Right, But I mean having having b V
having odor issues, it actually can have quite a toll
on people. There was this study in the Journal of
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in February that found that
(11:08):
recurrent b V is associated with psycho social issues not
addressed during a typical office visit. Women who frequently experience these, uh,
you know, the strong vaginal odor and they don't take
care of it and maybe they're just douching to cover
it up, they reported feelings of shame and embarrassment that
often caused them to engage in these hyper vigilant hygiene
(11:29):
routines that negatively affect their relationships, both professional and personal. Yeah,
and it makes a lot of sense that a someone
might not go get b V checked out right away
because a lot of times when it manifests, there aren't
any outward symptoms, and you might think, oh, well, if
if it recurred a lot of times, the a lot
of times the odor will arise after intercourse, and so
(11:52):
you might think, oh, well, maybe it has to do
with semen or simply the sweat that can happen when
two bodies I'll rubbing up against each or you know,
plenty of other things, and there can be a certain
amount of shame that can come along without saying like
I don't really want to have to go talk to
a stranger about my vagina, but again, you know that's
(12:14):
what doctors and nurses nurse practitioners are. Therefore, you know,
if you have an issue, go take care of it. Yeah.
And so this study really urged proper education, advice, and
support because bacterial vagin is is is perpetuated by lifestyle
practices that lead to recurrent infection. I mean, if you're
ashamed and you don't know who to talk to or
(12:35):
what it is and how to deal with it, that
a lot of people experience it, you know, you might
never seek treatment and it just keep getting it and
it keeps getting worse. Yeah, And that education factor is
one of the main reasons why we wanted to do
uh this episode on a maybe not so delightful topic
to talk about because, uh, you know, I'm twenty eight
and only recently found out about b V even though
(12:57):
it is the most common form of vaginal and action
in women. And when we were looking up sources on this,
I feel like, you you have to know what it
is in order to find good information. You know, It's
not like it's something that in the same way that
we might think of a yeast infection or an STD
like herpes or chlamydia. Oh, we would know just inherently
(13:20):
to go like look for that and look for those
risk factors. Um. I don't think that women are as
aware of b V as maybe they should be. So
I have that hope that maybe this helps, because it
could be alarming if you don't know what's going on
and all of a sudden there's a change down there,
then you might think that something is wrong with you
and just be embarrassed. Whereas, oh, you know, it's a
(13:42):
pH shift, there's some bacteria, gets some antibiotics done. So
I hope this was helpful. And one final takeaway tip
though that we found from go ask Alice that we
reference all the time from Columbia University bubble bath fans,
you might want to be aware how much soap you're
putting in those bubble baths because heavily perfumed or died
(14:06):
soaps can also irritate the vagina. Yeah, they recommended maybe
taking a shower and soaping up first, and then taking
a soapless soap in a very clean tub. It makes
you wonder if we should do an episode on the
days oh man, that makes me think of crocodile dundee. Well,
on that note, let us know your thoughts right to
(14:27):
us mom Stuff at Discovery dot com about bacterial vagidoses,
bubble bass, the days, crocodile dundee, any of it, whatever
your heart desires, mom Stuff at Discovery dot com, or
you can also hit us up on Facebook and tweet
us at Mom's Stuff podcast. But right quick, we've got
a couple of emails to share with. Okay, I have
(14:49):
a message here from Robin about our school uniforms episode.
She said, I just wanted to drop in and say
that I was one of those kids that desperately wanted
uniforms when I was in school. I was a really
overweight kid with terrible self esteem, so picking clothes in
the morning was torture for me. I was so angry
that my high school adopted them the years after I graduated.
But now I work as a co teacher a fancy
(15:11):
way of saying teacher assistant at an elementary school, and
I still think there should be uniforms. But for the staff.
You wouldn't believe how unprofessional looking teachers can be. If
given the chance. Uniforms would not only make us look better,
but help us feel like more a team. Similar reasoning
to what's given about students, teachers can be as disjointed
(15:31):
and spiteful to each other as the kids. Honestly, I mean,
if other workplaces have uniforms for staff, is it such
a huge stretch? I don't think it is, so thanks
Robin Well, I've got one here from Tara, also about
dress codes outside of secondary school. So she writes, I
never had any problems with dress codes until college, and
(15:53):
now I've had my fair share of difficulties. I'm currently
in my last semester of nursing school and being in
a professional program. I under stand that a stricter dress
code sets it apart, but the dress code is meant
to promote cleanliness and professionalism. I got written up for
wearing a headband in the clinical setting. My instructor's reasonings
were that it's against dress code and that an angry
(16:13):
patient could strangle me with it, being very diligent. I
reread the student handbook and found no mention of the
illicitness of headbands, So my mistake I or another headband
making sure it was more discreet and not enclose. Well,
it turns out I had disrespected her authority, which was
not my intention at all, and I got dragged into
multiple interrogations and had the event recorded in my file. Meanwhile,
(16:36):
the woman who had primary red hair didn't have any
problems with anyone, even though unnatural hair colors were in
fact forbidden. So my takeaway was that I feel that
some of the difficulty with dress codes in high school
or college is that there is so much subjectivity involved.
One instructor may have no issue with what you wear,
being more lenient, while another could overreact. So good luck
(17:00):
to Tara for the rest of her nursing school. I
guess just don't wear those headbands, Sarah. I think that's
the takeaway. Try Barrett, try bobby pins. Don't lose them
in a patient. So again, if you want to write
to us mom Stuff at Discovery dot com, it's our
email address. You can send us a message on Facebook
like a stair while you're at it. Also follow us
(17:20):
on Twitter, Mom Stuff podcast and on tumbler as well.
It's stuff Mom Never Told You dot tumblr dot com.
And if you want to know how vaginas work, you
can read that very article by Miss Molly Edmonds at
how stuff works dot com for more on this and
(17:41):
thousands of other topics. Does it How stuff works dot Com.
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