Beware! Your Favorite Scented Body Wash Could Cause Bacterial Vaginosis

As a person who experienced bacterial vaginosis for months, I am putting out a warning signal to all women who have ever picked up a lovely bottle of scented body wash in the store and gotten overly excited about using it on every single part of their body.

Vaginosis is not a yeast infection. It cannot be cured by putting some vinegar in your bathtub or eating several pints of yogurt. Vaginosis is very painful. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some behaviors that put women at risk for vaginosis include having a new sex partner or multiple sex partners and douching. Serious risks of having the infection include an increased susceptibility to HIV if exposed to the HIV virus and an increase susceptibility to other STDs like herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea. Some websites state that if vaginosis goes untreated, it could lead to infertility.

I didn't have any sexual risk factors, and I've never douched before. When I visited the doctor, her words were."Don't use anything with scents or colors down there. It can cause a bacterial infection." When she said that it dawned on me that I had fallen in love with this beautiful dark pink, lovely, smelly scented body wash someone got me from the Body Shop just a few months prior. I put the wash on a wash cloth and put it on every inch of my skin. The stuff smelled absolutely fantastic.

But then I started to feel this pulsating pain down there and I had absolutely no idea where it came from so I kept using the body wash day after day. The pain got worse until it became much more than an irritatition, but a burning, sometimes a throbbing. This went on for a few months as I did vinegar rinses, ate yogurt and attempted other home remedies. When I finally went to the doctor I was prescribed metronidazol a medicine that kills the bacteria inside, but it can't distinguish between the bad bacteria and the good bacteria so you may deal with nasty side effects like nasuea, and other less pretty stomach effects. Then, your pharmacist may tell you to take some yogurt so the good bacteria can be replaced back in your stomach, but this may only help the problem a little.

I say all this to say that I used to never ever like Ivory soap because it has no smell to it, but now I buy it up so quick in the store because I know it won't give me any bacterial infections. If you are interested in that foamy body wash on the shelf for all of your bath and beauty needs, be very careful where you put it or else you could experience what I have experienced and trust me, it's anything but beautiful.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/std/bv/stdfact-bacterial-vaginosis.htm