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Something I will never, ever, ever 'get'.
Anyway, I pulled out "Woman an Intimate Geography" by Natalie Angier, and thought I'd post this part. I'm sure I've posted it before at some point. I need the typing practice anyway. I wish I could do the whole chapter.
"The crux of the vaginal ecosystem, said Hillier, is symbiosis, a mutually advantageous and ongoing barter between macro-environment and microorganism. Yes, the vagina is full of germs, in the sense of bacteria; it swims with life forms, and you hope it stays that way. But there are germs and germs. When conditions are healthy, the germs, or rather bacteria, in the vagina do a body good. They are lactobacilli, the same bacteria found in yogurt. "A healthy vagina is a clean dn pure as a carton of yogurt," said Hillier. (Why do I suspect that we're not likely to see Dannon picking up on this slogan anytime soon?) And so the smell "A normal vagina should have a slightly sweet, slightly pungent odor. It should have the lactic acid smell of yogurt." The contract is simple. We provide lactobacilli with food and shelter--the comfort of the vaginal walls. The moisture,the proteins, they sugars of our tissue. They maintain a stable population and keep competing bacteria out. Merely by living and metabolizing, they generate lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide; which are disinfectants that prevent colonization by less benign microbes. The robust vagina is an acidic vagina with a pH of 3.8 to 4.5. That's somewhat more acidic than black coffee (with a pH of 5)but less piquant that a lemon (pH2).In fact the idea of pairing wine and women isn't bad one, as the acidity of the vagina in health is just about that of a glass of red wine. This is the vagina that sings; this is the vagina with bouquet, with legs
Nor is ordinary vaginal discharge anything to be mortified about. It is made up of the same things found in blood serum, the clear, then sticky liquid that remains behind when the solid components of blood, like clotting factors, are separated away. Vaginal discharge consists of water, albumin--the most abundant protein in the body--a few stray white blood cells and mucin, the oily substance that gives the vagina and cervix their slippery sheen. Discharge is ont dirt, certainly, and it is not a toxic waste product of the body in the sense of urine and feces. No, no, no. It is the same substance as what's inside the vagina neither better nor worse, pulled down because we're bipedal and gravity exists and because on occasion the cup runneth over. It is the lubricant beneath the illusion of carapace, reminding up that physiologically, we are all aquatic organisms.
But gals, there's no denying it: sometimes we stink and we know it. Not like strawberry yogurt or a good Cabernet, but like, alas, albacore. Or even skunk. How does this happen? If you haven't bathed for a week, I'll let you figure it out for yourself. But sometimes it's not a question of hygiene; it's a medical issue, a condition called bacterial vaginosis. For a number of reasons the balance of flora within the vagina is upset and the lactobacilli start to founder, In their stead, other organisms proliferate, particularly anaerobic bacteria, which thrive in the absence of oxygen. They microbes secrete a host of compounds, each fouler than the last. Here is where the unflattering comparison to seafood comes in Distressingly, the microbes make trimethylamine, which is the same substance that gives day-old fish it's fishy odor. They make putrescine, a compound found in putrefying meat. The made cadaverine, and I need not tell you from whence that chemical was named. The amount and combination of these rank byproducts depends of the severity of the vaginosis.
In other words, if you're having a problem with unspeakable "feminine odor," that syndrome so coyly referred to in all those ass for douches and feminine deodorants, you could have an infection, often a low-grade chronic one, with no symptoms beyond the odiferous. Some of the causes of such infection are known. Among the biggest is...douching. In an effort to get fresh 'n' clean, and to look like the dewy, virginal women pictured on the packages of Massengill, women can make themselves dirtier than ever. Douching kills off the beneficial lactobacilli and paves the way for infection by anaerobes and their trails of cadavrine. So, while I rarely dispense medical advice this one is easy; don't douche, ever, period, end of squirt bottle."
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