Understanding the Bristol Stool Chart & Vaginal Health

Your poo tells you a lot about your body. Each type of bowel motion means a certain thing could be going on in your body, and give you clues as to what you need – or don’t need any more of.

The Bristol Stool Chart divides your poop up into seven categories.

Types 1 and 2 mean you are a bit backed up, types 3 and 4 are the perfect poop, and types 5, 6 and 7 are faster or looser flowing stools (faeces).

How your bowel motions are and the health of your vagina

Your vagina and bowel aren’t as separate as you might like them to be, and healthy bowels often means a healthy vagina. If you don’t have a healthy vagina, it doesn’t always bode badly for your bowels, but the opposite is not true: an unhealthy bowel can wreak havoc on your vagina.

Why does the bowel affect the vagina?

Bacteria is shared right across our whole bodies, but some bacteria likes to live only in certain places. This doesn’t mean it can’t live other places, just that it has a preference. Then there are many microbes that have very specialised setups, and must live only in certain areas. This might include a tiny corner or your bowel.

Some bacteria can easily pass between the anus to the vagina, no matter how ‘clean’ you think you are. This is because bacteria can and do travel. Not all microbes travel the same, but they certain get around. This is how infections are spread – door handles, fingers, mouths.

If you have a lot of bad bacteria in your bowels, it means there is just that extra opportunity for some of those little microbes to move to your vagina or urinary tract, causing an infection. This is why anyone with digestive upsets and vagina problems should focus first on their bowel (if they can), to clear up the problems there, so that the vagina has a better chance of getting better by itself.

Diet matters! Eat crappy food and you kill your good bacteria. Eat lots of good food, and your microbes stay happy. You can also add more good bacteria in with fermented foods.