Optimising Vaginal Health: Culturelle Women's Review

Culturelle is a brand owned by i-health, which is a company owned by DSM Nutritional Products. i-Health also owns AZO, another competing women’s probiotic brand.

Safe for use during pregnancy.

May not be very widely available, as these products are new to the market and each country requires certain red tape to sell these products in.

Culturelle Women’s Healthy Balance contains:

Lactobacillus crispatus LbV 88
Lactobacillus jensenii LbV 116
Lactobacillus gasseri LbV 150N
Lactobacillus rhamnosus LbV 96
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG

These bacteria have been found in healthy vaginas as the predominant species.

Instructions and dose of Culturelle Women’s Healthy Balance

Suggested use is one capsule per day by mouth. This product is not designed for direct vaginal use, however, it can be used if you switch capsules to pure vegetable capsules.

The capsules are enteric-coated, containing ingredients that are not vagina safe. Follow these ingredients to switch capsules for vaginal use. Store in a cool dry place.

Cost of each dose of Culturelle Women’s Healthy Balance

When it comes to probiotics, you need to take the CFU count into consideration. In this case, using the above numbers, you can expect to pay about US$30 for 30 capsules = $1 per dose.

About the enteric coating/gelatin capsules

The enteric-coated vegetable capsules are designed to be resistant to stomach acid, allowing the bacteria to arrive in the non-acidic intestine unharmed, with almost 100 per cent of the probiotics passing into the intestines.

Gelatin capsules are designed to be broken down in stomach acid or heat and may not dissolve well in your vagina.

How to use Culturelle Women’s Healthy Balance vaginally – My Vagina’s recommendations

We advise you to buy some vegetable caps yourself, and remove the contents from the gelatin/enteric-coated capsule and put it into the vegetable cap for vaginal use. Insert deep vaginally as required or instructed by your health professional.