A lab study has tried to figure out just what impact pH has on the Gardnerella vaginalis polymicrobial biofilm, and found that forcing your vagina to be a pH of 4.5 or more acidic (lower number/pH) destroys planktonic G. vaginalis and breaks down the biofilm.
Researchers grew a culture of G. vaginalis in a pH of 7 (alkaline), then replaced the medium with a pH of 4.5 and watched to see what would happen.
Shifting the pH to 4.5 after 20 hours of biofilm formation reduced CFU counts by three orders of magnitude.
When the pH was stabilised using a buffer, the established biofilm almost completely disintegrated. pH affected the ability of G. vaginalis to form biofilms but also reduced bacterial counts threefold.
References
Gottschick C, Szafranski SP, Kunze B, Sztajer H, Masur C, Abels C, et al. (2016) Screening of Compounds against Gardnerella vaginalis Biofilms. PLoS ONE 11(4): e0154086. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154086
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