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Hi Aunt Vadge,
My discharge is thick white/yellow and smells very strong. If I don’t use tampons the smell soaks through to my underwear and trousers.
It started three months ago, the day after I was harshly fingered by a friend. The strength varies, but it hasn’t smelled normal since. There are no other symptoms. I’ve been tested for all STIs and for bacterial infection – all negative.
At my last appointment I was told to wear cotton underwear, stop shaving, and try not to irritate it. I’ve stopped using tampons to see if it helps. I haven’t seen a gynaecologist yet. Please help – I’ve stopped having sex because the smell is too embarrassing.
Yours sincerely,
Embarrassed
Norway, age 21
Hi there Embarrassed,
First, please don’t be embarrassed – a smell like this is a body problem to solve, and it’s very fixable – it has nothing to do with how clean you are. In our clinical work, foul-smelling discharge with clear infection swabs is a familiar puzzle, and there’s a clear order to work through it.
The one thing I’d check first
Your timeline is the biggest clue: a strong, persistent smell that started the day after something was inserted, that hasn’t shifted in three months, and that comes back with every infection test negative. That specific pattern is the classic picture for a small retained foreign body – most often a forgotten tampon, but sometimes a scrap of one, or other debris pushed up during that rough fingering. A tucked-away tampon can sit above the cervix out of sight and reach, and it produces exactly this: a persistent, offensive smell with normal swabs.
This is worth ruling out before anything else, and it needs a proper speculum exam – so this is the point to see a gynaecologist or a sexual-health clinic. It’s a quick look, it’s not something we can do from here, and if that’s what it is, removing it fixes the whole thing almost overnight.
If nothing’s retained: a bacterial imbalance
If the exam is clear, the next most likely explanation for thick yellow, foul discharge is a bacterial imbalance such as aerobic vaginitis (AV), where the wrong sorts of bacteria overgrow and produce the smell – the same way bacteria make anything else go off. Standard STI and BV swabs often miss AV, which is exactly why yours may keep coming back clear.
To see what’s actually growing, get a comprehensive vaginal microbiome test, which picks up the fuller bacterial picture rather than just the usual suspects. Once you know what’s there, you can rebalance it. This is how we usually approach it.
Vaginal probiotics
Use a high-dose probiotic with as many of the strains that normally live in the vagina as possible. We use a women’s microflora probiotic orally and a vaginal probiotic vaginally.
Milk kefir for protective bacteria
Buy some milk kefir grains online and learn to ferment them at home. Make about a cup a day, split into morning and night. You can also insert a little milk kefir vaginally with a syringe (around 20ml) and pop a tampon in afterwards – instructions are here.
Garlic vaginally
Garlic is antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal, so you can pop a slightly crushed clove up your vagina at night only, with a cotton thread through it so you can pull it out easily. Instructions for vaginal garlic are here.
Hydrogen peroxide rinse
To rinse out lingering discharge, you can try douching with 6% hydrogen peroxide once daily for a week, separate from the options above. Do not continually douche, but use this to rinse out discharge.
What not to do
While you’re rebalancing, keep semen out of the vagina by using condoms – it’s high in fructose, which feeds disruptive bacteria, and it also shifts your pH unfavourably. And keep taking your doctor’s sensible advice: cotton underwear, no shaving, and nothing harsh or perfumed near the area.
If the exam is clear and things still don’t settle, please go back to your doctor, or book a consultation with a My Vagina vulvovaginal specialist naturopath and we’ll help you get to the bottom of it.
Write back anytime.
Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
