Bacterial Vaginosis (BV): Causes, Prevention, Care and Home Remedies

BV is known to be the most common vaginal infection that affect adolescents and young adult. Mainly, female between the age of 15 and 45 years. It is an infection of the vagina

Causes and Prevention of Bacterial Vaginosis

There are good bacteria in the body like in the intestine and vagina. There are also bad bacteria. Good bacteria help to reduce the growth of bad bacteria. When there bad types are more than the good ones, there can be problem. BV occurs as a result of imbalance in the good vagina bacteria.

Some people think Bacterial vaginosis is a form of toilet diseases. Bacterial vaginosis cannot be contacted from use of swimming pool or toilet. However, you can prevent yourself from getting BV by having a faithful sex partner and avoidance of douching.

BV is not classified as a sexually transmitted disease, but abstaining and faithfulness to a partner will help to reduce the risk of getting infected. However, it has been seen transferred among the lesbians when they have sexual intercourse with each other.

Avoid the use of strong soap or detergent, especially while bathing the vagina area. These detergents may reduce the good bacteria preset in the vagina.

Avoid the use of perfume or deodorants on underwear and pants

Do not spray your vagina area with perfume or deodorant

Reduce the use of antiseptics soap in washing vagina area. Antiseptics soap will not only eliminate the bad bacteria, but also the good ones.

Bacterial vaginosis is commonly seen amonng women that take contraceptive drugs.

Symptoms of BV

The common symptom of Bacterial Vaginosis is a smelling vaginal discharge. It can present with grey, yellow or dirty white colour. However, vaginal discharge can be seen in some other conditions too like yeast infection and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). You can also notice the following symptoms in someone that has BV

Bad vaginal odor (fishy smell)

Pain in the vulva or vagina area

Burning sensation in the vagina

Sore in the vagina

Home Remedies for Bacterial Vaginosis

Tea tree oil- it has antifungal and antimicrobial effect. Mix it with vinegar oil and soak with warm water for about 20 minutes. Use it to rinse our vagina.it has a relieving effect on vagina sore and burning sensation

Apple cider vinegar- it helps to restore balance between the good and the bad bacteria resent in the vagina. Put one spoon of the vinegar in warm water and use it to douche your vagina once daily. 

Yogurt- yogurt contains quite number of good bacteria. Eating appreciable amount of yogurt helps to improve the flora system of the body. It will restore good bacteria present in the vagina. Otherwise, you can apply some topically using tampon. Put some yogurt in the tampon and insert it. Wait for about an hour before removing it

Coconut Oil- it is use in the same way as yogurt. Use coconut nut in your cooking as it has an antibacterial, antimicrobial and antifungal property. It can also be used by applying some on the tampon and insert into the vagina for some hours.

Garlic- garlic is well known for its high medicinal value. It is also found useful in treating BV. Some people do not use garlic because of its smell, however, if can eat garlic, it will help in eradicating your infection. You can pass a thread through a garlic clove and insert it into the vaginal for about 30 minutes. In case of severe bacterial vaginosis, u can cut the close into halves before passing thread through it. This will increase the contact area of the garlic with the vagina.

Other ingredients you can use to treat bacteria vaginosis include walnut, neem powder, drinking citrus fruits and vegetable juices

Treatment of Bacterial Vaginosis

Most times, BV can heal naturally without any treatment.  Doctor will check for other diseases with associated symptoms like in vaginal yeast infection. Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to be used for some days. If BV is not treated at appropriate time, it can result in infection spreading toward the fallopian tube and may result in the pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Most women that had had bacterial vaginosis see it occurring again. It is a disease that is common to reoccur.

When to See your Doctor

It is advisable to see your doctor if you are pregnant.  This is to avoid complications in pregnancy such has low birth weight (LBW), miscarriage, infected amniotic fluid and serious illness. He or she will prescribe oral drug for you. Avoid treatment with cream if you are pregnant

If the vaginal discharge is really bad and abnormal, consult your doctor. Your doctor may ask you to go for test. Some vaginal discharge will be collected and examine in the lab.

Complications of Bacterial Vaginosis

BV increases your chance of contacting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV. It also increases the chance of spreading STIs to unaffected person when there is sexual intercourse. It can result in early miscarriage, low birth weight, or pre-term labour if you are pregnant. It can cause Pelvic Inflammatory Diseases (PID) which can result in barrenness, unable to bear children.

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