Something else? Ask Aunt Vadge – bottom left of your screen!
Hi Aunt Vadge,
My vagina tastes and smells bad. It’s not a fishy smell, but an ‘off’ smell, and I get a weird white clumpy discharge during intercourse. I went to the gyno and everything was fine, but I’m wondering why this is happening. It’s stayed the same throughout. I have a bad diet. It’s embarrassing and gives me anxiety. I’d prefer not to send a picture, but I could if needed.
Thanks,
Anxious
Age 20, United States
Dear Anxious,
You sound like you could use some diet help to get your microbes back on track, which I think will clear your problem up pretty fast. You’re right to blame your diet – the gut is home to all of your bacteria, so when that’s off, your vagina goes off too. It’s all connected.
My top tips for a clean, delicious vag
Rule one
Scoff down a lot of alive fermented foods – at a health-food store, find live sauerkraut, yoghurt, kombucha, kefir (milk and water), kimchi and tempeh, and have three serves a day. It must be alive, though – check. Pasteurised foods from the supermarket are dead and useless. You can make your own cheaply at home; look online for recipes, they’re everywhere.
Rule two
Cut out food that feeds bad germs – sugary booze, fatty foods, sugary foods and drinks, and lots of starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta and potatoes. Completely cut out soda/fizzy drink, juice and energy drinks. Red wine is okay.
Rule three
Introduce foods that feed good germs – lots of fibre from vegetables, especially onions and garlic. Every meal should be one-third colourful vegetables, one-third lean protein and one-third wholegrains. Potatoes don’t count as a vegetable here.
Rule four
Drink plenty of water to keep your bowel hydrated so you poop regularly – without exercise or summer heat, about two litres a day, which can include caffeine-free herbal teas.
Rule five
Eat fibre so you poop regularly (clearing out bad germs). Add one teaspoon of plain raw psyllium husk to a very large glass of water and skull it back every day. The water is essential, since psyllium absorbs water – skip it and it turns to concrete in your guts and you won’t poop for a week.
Optional rule six
Add a biofilm-busting enzyme treatment (like InterFase) to kill any biofilms in your gut that could be preventing good bacteria from surviving.
The rest
You’re going to have to make changes, and they’ll hurt, but you’ll feel way, way better very soon. I bet your bowels are pretty yuck too, but you’ll quickly find they regulate, stop smelling so bad, and you just feel better, with less bloating and gas.
Once your insides have re-regulated, your vagina will follow suit. To give it a booster, you can do a douche with lavender oil and warm water – 2 drops of lavender essential oil (100 per cent) in one cup of warm water. Use a douche or a plastic syringe canister – ask at the pharmacy.
Additionally, if you can afford a good vaginally-oriented probiotic capsule, take them orally, two a day for the whole bottle. You can also try adding vaginal probiotics, or even using milk kefir vaginally – with a soaked tampon, for a few hours every day for two weeks. It can really help.
Changing your diet is hard, but you need to sort your gut bacteria out, or your vagina will always be a bit gross, and you can’t go through life like that. Start slow, but eventually cut out the crap food and replace it with food that isn’t poisonous. You know what to do. Your body will kick up a fuss at first, but keep at it – after a few weeks it settles down and readjusts. Write back and let me know how you go, or if you get stuck.
Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
