Vaginal douching is the process of cleaning the vagina and for some ladies who do it, there is more benefit.
Ladies do vaginal douching with different liquid solutions.
Some add vinegar or salt to hot water and allow the steam go into their vagina.
While some douche for personal hygiene others do for aesthetic reasons.
Indeed, some do for prevention or treatment of an infection, cleansing after menstruation or sex, and prevention of pregnancy.
These are different reasons ladies give for douching (1).
Sadly, none of these has tangible research supporting it.
The most baffling thing is that blacks engage in it more.
In fact, there are chances that vaginal douching stem from Africa.
This is obvious because in the United States, the practice is more among blacks (2). So, it may have been handed down as a tradition. Just our thought.
Talking about the benefits of douching, we really tried to see if we can get a study that justifies the practice with the slightest benefits, but we could not find.
If you douche, here are some of the things that you should know. They are facts from studies on vaginal douching.
1. Vaginal Douching Increases Risk Of Infection
One of the major reasons most ladies douche is to cleans the vagina.
They just don’t like the odour they perceive each time they check their vagina.
They want to perceive something more appealing. To satisfy their sense of smell some go to the extent of applying fragrance or perfume down below.
Unfortunately, people who do, do not ask other ladies how their vagina smells to see if their is consistent.
The vagina never smells good! Yes!
The truth is that it has an odour that is close to onions or aloe Vera. Just so you know.
Don’t go douching because you want to cleans the vagina.
You may have seen this douching thing in one of our earlier articles on how to use Goron Tula.
When we had discussions with some residents of Tula in Gombe State about how they use Goron Tula for vagina cleansing and tightening, they said douching.
However, they douche with smoke from the chaff and we are not sure of how much positive impact that will have.
As such, we recommend washing the vagina with Goron Tula water instead.
This gives positive result because this miracle fruit contains antioxidants. These compounds help fight bacterial and yeast infections.
That said, douching with hot water, salt or vinegar will not give you same result.
The fact is that when you douche, the natural cleansing that occurs in your vagina will not happen.
Basically, there will be imbalance of bacteria and yeast and this will automatically result in infection (3)
2. Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)
According to the study above, vaginal douching could cause pelvic inflammatory disease.
This happens because douching could send infection in the vagina further into the uterus, fallopian tubes, and/or ovaries.
It says, “douching may remove normal vaginal flora, permitting the overgrowth of pathogens.
“It may also provide a pressurised fluid vehicle for pathogen transport, helping lower genital tract infections ascend above the cervix into the uterus, fallopian tubes, or abdominal cavity”.
When this happens, and there is a build up, it will result in PID.
According to a study, douching increases a woman’s risk of PID. Those who douche have 73% higher risk.
3. Infertility and Douching
This appears to be the only benefit of douching that we can lay hold on. However, it is in the negative.
Constant couching reduces the presence of cervical mucus that should be in the vagina.
This makes it difficult for the semen to swim to the egg for fertilisation.
When this happens, you will face infertility.
So, rather than preventing pregnancy, douching actually makes it hard for a woman to conceive.
Please, note that we are not saying you should begin to practice it as contraceptive.
4. Cervical Cancer
This is a form of cancer that occurs in the cells of the cervix. The cervix is that lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina.
When there is inflammation in the vagina, it could result in uncontrolled division and growth of abnormal cells.
This situation could result in the abnormal cells forming tumours.
Remember that we said earlier that douching could cause inflammation.
5. Vaginal Douching Could Cause Birth-related Issues
According to a study, douching could cause low birth weight, preterm birth and even ectopic pregnancy (5).
This is because when you douche, it sets off an alteration of the natural level of bacterial or fungi in the vagina.
Also, douching may increase a ladies risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus since it could make the vagina dry.
When penetration during intercourse becomes difficult, as a result of the dryness, there could be bruises.
Furthermore, this will make blood contact possible.
What A Healthy Vagina Should Be Like
According to a study, a healthy menarcheal vaginal environment is composed primarily of lactobacilli.
Hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli may protect the vagina against the overgrowth of potentially pathogenic.
It also helps protect against overgrowth of indigenous flora and exogenous pathogens.
Selected human strains of lactobacilli produce lactic acid.
This acid helps keep the vaginal pH low to make the vagina inhospitable to many pathogenic organisms.
But douching takes away this natural occurrence, exposing you to the dangers listed earlier.
We discourage vaginal douching, since we cannot find any tangible benefit it offers to any lady.
Remember that no one wants to be infertile.
Instead of douching, keep healthy habits that will be of huge benefit to your vagina.
WATCH: HOW TO USE GORON TULA FOR INFECTION