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The phrase "female hygiene" belongs in the trash alongside your last soiled dental decametre or tampon.

But that doesn't beggarly vagina owners shouldn't prioritize the health of their genitals — they should!

Read on to acquire why the language wont to describe vulvar health is food waste. Summation, what vulvar health and hygiene really entails.

As it's primarily in use, "feminine hygiene" doesn't really mean anything.

It's zipp more than a marketing ploy. One that's based in transphobic, misogynistic values planned to make cisgender women feel ashamed of their genitalia, and therefore buy so-named feminine hygienics products.

The (false) message: Using these products makes you (and your genitals) clean, patc non using them makes you untidy.

"While the phrase 'feminine hygiene' is ofttimes used to make people with vaginas find bemire, the destination of the phrase is recognizing the unique qualities of the parts that make up the vulva and the vaginal canal," explains Felice Gersh, MD, author of "PCOS SOS: A Woman's doctor's Lifeline to Naturally Reestablish Your Rhythms, Hormones, and Happiness."

So, actually, a improved, more accurate phrase would be vulval/vaginal hygiene.

If you're wondering wherefore the phrase "vulvar hygiene" would *non* suffice, here's a quick anatomy example:

  • The vagina = the internal part of the genitals. It's the canal where things like tampons and dildos fundament go.
  • The vulva = the external parts of the genitals, which include the pubic bestrid, inner and outer labia, clitoris, and the vestibule.

And as Gersh notes, here we want to cost speaking about both parts.

As young every bit possible, actually.

"Just as parents explain to their children that they require to clean 'tween their toes and light touch their dentition, they indigence to explain to their child that they should lean to their genitals," Gersh says.

Even as oral examination hygienics entails more than just one thing, vulvar/vaginal hygiene does too!

Feeding

IT very does all start with food!

"Our entire body needs a wide range of nutrients systematic to function optimally," Gersh says. "So, what we eat and drink affects our vulva and vagina in the aforementioned way that what we eat and drink affect all parts of our body."

To maintain the most optimal vulvar and vaginal wellness, she recommends a dieting rich in:

  • antioxidants
  • vitamin E
  • vitamin C
  • omega-3 fatty acid fatty acids
  • omega-6 fatty acids
  • protein
  • probiotics

Cleanup

Likely, cleaning your bits is a far less ~involved~ process than you might have guessed.

In the shower

The vagina is a self-cleaning machine.

If you've ever seen electric discharge in your undies — assuming it doesn't have a new aroma or tinge — that's certify that your vagina is functioning just flop.

The vulva, on the other reach, ISN't person-cleanup.

"The vulva is pare, and information technology's skin that needs to be washed sporting like any early skin connected the body," explains Lauren F. Streicher, Old Line State, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and writer of "Sex Rx: Hormones, Health, and Your Best Wind up Of all time."

"A mild, fragrance-freed liquid ecstasy with water system and your fingers in the shower are more adequate enough," she says.

Subsequently going to the bathroom

"The most primal thing to keep in mind when wiping [after pooping and piss] is that you want to wipe your anus and vagina separately," Streicher says.

Meaning, wipe united sphere, discard the used paper. Then wipe the other area.

The grounds? "You Don River't want to pollute the urethra with anything from the rectum, because information technology increases the risk of a excreta tract infection," she says.

And if you wipe away each area singly, that's a nonissue.

Just peeing? Be confident to wipe anterior to back, forever.

After sex

Simple: pee!

Pissing cleans out whatever bacterium that may have migrated into the urethra during play, which may supporte reduce the chance of a UTI, explains Gersh.

"You can also behave extraordinary little swish of H2O on your vulva with your finger, but Don't do any internal washing or scrubbing," she says.

Grooming

Pubic hair has many important biological purposes, says Streicher.

This includes protective the delicate vulvar skin from friction during intercourse and other activities.

"But there has been no research that shows that the pubic fuzz has any function as far as hygiene goes," she says.

That said, if you choose to transfer some Beaver State all of your bush, the way you do it matters.

"You lack to use a fresh blade all time," Streicher says. If that sounds too costly, at the very least designate a vulva-only blade. That way you're not exploitation a brand that's been dulled by shaving shag elsewhere on your body.

When you're done, dry the razor and store it away in your locker as opposed to along a shower ledge. This can help keep the razor from biological process mold and chromatic.

Even if you follow completely these above steps perfectly, ingrown tomentum and irritation are silent a risk. And for folks with uber-sensitive skin, they're practically inevitable.

"A warm compress on the ingrown pilus can help open the pore and take out the follicle from underneath the shin," Streicher says.

But if the bump you think back is an ingrown hairsbreadth is accompanied by symptoms like funky discharge, a foul olfactory sensation, or pain, reach to a healthcare supplier.

"They'll be able to tell you if it's in reality an ingrown, and make out whatsoever acculturation swaps they look match," she says.

Soothing

"You really don't need to be worrying about soothing your vulva skin unless it's riled," Streicher says.

If it is irritated, she recommends backing polish off any fragrant products and shift to a soap bar with mild, hydrating aloe vera.

If the irritation doesn't go away, get hold of impermissible to a health care supplier.

Monitoring

"The prizewinning mode to tell if something is awry with your vagina and vulva is to become familiar with it," says Aleece Fosnight, a board certified physician assistant and medical advisor at Aeroflow Urogenital medicine.

Her suggestion? Spend time encyclopedism the style your genitals typically:

  • look
  • smell
  • feel

How? By slowing down in the shower, sniffing the crotch of your panties, looking your genitals with a hand out mirror, touching operating room fingering yourself, and regularly leaving to the doctor.

"The biggest indication that something needs to commute is if you're experiencing unpleasant side effects operating theater pain," Streicher says.

That same, there are some ~John Major life events~ that may require an update to your routine. Including:

If you let (or continue to have!) gender

If you become a sexually active person, prioritizing your genital health means knowing your present-day STI status.

Sex International Relations and Security Network't just member-in-vagina penetrative intercourse. It's also:

  • head
  • hand play
  • bumping and attrition
  • anal sex

And the only way to know your current STI status? Become STI screened after every new sexy partner.

If you're pregnant

"When you're gravid the lowest thing you deficiency is [foreign] bacteria to take over, so my judgement is that less [cleansing] is more," Gersh says.

If you're going through menopause

"After menopause the vulva skin may need more moisture because the skin and field wish get ahead Sir Thomas More dry," Gersh says.

She also recommends extra supplements to sustenance the skin moisturized from the inside out and after-school in:

  • vitamin E
  • vitamin C
  • multivitamin pill
  • collagen protein

Two words: Please don't!

"Trends like douching and steaming may be fun to read almost," Streicher says, merely they're little than fun for your genitals.

"Not only are at that place absolutely no benefits to these trends, but doing them buns actively cause harm," she says.

Douching — the act of washing the canal canal with a water-goop or water-acetum miscellanea — throne falsify the vagina's natural microbiome.

And when that happens? "You take away the vagina's rude Department of Defense against infections," she says.

Vaginal steaming can also mess up with these defenses. But even more unspeakable and unsavory is the risk that IT can literally combust your vaginal tissues and vulvar bark. Ouch!

To be very shed light on: Anything marketed as "feminine hygienics" is a no-go.

Ditto goes for any price that claims to equal "pH balancing." "The vulva doesn't need to be pH balanced, and the vagina is capable to supervise its own pH," Streicher says.

Yep! See a health care provider if you've detected a change in look, feel, surgery odour, says Fosnight.

(Non sure how to comment a change? Scroll back up, darling!)

Whether you prefer video, page, or audio-only learning, there's an education culture medium for you!

You might:

  • Conform to @DrJenGunter or read her Word "The Vagina Bible," which you hindquarters purchase online.
  • Bribe "Our Bodies, Ourselves" by Boston Women's Health Word Built, Beaver State ascertain come out of the closet their website.
  • Peruse the Projected Parenthood website or the Planned Parentage YouTube channel.
  • Bank check forbidden the website Bedsider.

Gabrielle Kassel is a New York-based sex and health author and CrossFit Level 1 Trainer. She's become a sunup person, tested over 200 vibrators, and eaten, drunk, and brushed with charcoal — all in the cite of fourth estate. In her spare time, she can be ground reading self-service books and romance novels, bench-pressing, or pole dancing. Follow her on Instagram.