All vaginas, including healthy ones, have their unique smell, usually a mild odour that isn’t unpleasant. However, certain things like diet, sex, pregnancy, menstruation etc., can change the smell of the vagina. Still, if you notice a strong and unpleasant vagina odour with or without a discharge, you must tackle it immediately.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend so much time and money in healthcare centres to do this because, in this guide, we will show you how to get rid of vagina odour at home in the most easy and inexpensive ways.
What Causes Vagina Odour
Many vagina odours are due to a short-term shift in the vagina’s PH and normal flora due to specific activities and changes in your body, so they aren’t usually a cause for concern. If you follow the simple tips in this guide, they will go away very quickly.
These types of vagina odours can be due to diet, sex, urine residues, stress, sweating, menstruation, changes in hormones due to pregnancy, menopause and menstruation, dehydration, and delayed tampoon or pad removal.
On the other hand, some vagina odours may be caused by an infection or inflammation in the vagina, and you will have to treat the underlying cause before you can get rid of the odour. Such odours may be caused by bacterial vaginosis (BV), trichomonas vaginosis, yeast infection, cervical cancer, rectovaginal fistula, and vaginal cancer.
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How to get Rid of Vagina Odour at Home
Eat a Healthy Diet
You may not have known this, but what you eat affects how you smell; if you eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, whole grains, vegetables, etc., you will have a softer scent than eating spicy, greasy or salty foods. Certain things like alcohol, added sugar, and spices like garlic can cause vagina odour and increase your risk of PH imbalance, so if you have vagina odour, it is best to watch your diet and make sure you are eating the right things because you will smell like what you eat.
Maintain Good Personal Hygiene
Many vagina odours are often caused by poor hygiene; if you do not wash your vagina as much as you should and change your underwear and menstrual pads when you should, you will surely notice vagina odour. So, what you need to do now is to start taking your hygiene seriously; here are some tips that will help.
- Wash your vagina as often as possible.
- Clean up after urinating.
- Clean your vagina from front to back.
- Change your menstrual pads and tampons when you should.
- Using a menstrual cup or tampons instead of pads is advisable because pads tend to hold more odour from blood.
- Wear breathable cotton underwear because too much heat and moisture buildup can breed bacteria and cause a change in PH.
- Change your underwear at least twice daily.
- Do not wash your vagina with strong soap; instead, buy fragrance-free soap specially made for the vagina.
- Do not wash inside the vagina; wash only the outer surface (the vulva) because the vagina is self-cleansing, and washing inside can upset the PH balance.
- Sun dry your underwear or iron them to kill microorganisms.
- Change clothes after exercising; do not stay in damp clothes because bacteria thrive in wet places.
Practise Healthy Sex Habits
Sex is also one of the leading causes of vagina odour; semen can irritate the vagina and cause an unpleasant smell, so consider using a condom and avoid douching after sex. Also, urinate immediately after sex to prevent infections from bacteria that may have gone up your urinary tract during sex. Lastly, avoid using alternative products as lubricants and clean your sex toys correctly.
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Maintain a Healthy Weight
When thinking of how to get rid of vagina odour at home, the last thing you may consider is weight, but it cannot be ignored. Excess weight can cause extra sweating and lack of air in the vagina area, which can make the vagina moist at all times, breed bacteria and cause an unpleasant vagina odour. So you should consider maintaining a healthy weight by eating right and exercising regularly.
Boric acid
Boric acid is an antifungal and antimicrobial agent used to treat certain conditions. It is available over the counter and usually comes in capsules. It can be used to balance the vagina’s PH, inhibit the development of vagina infections, and eliminate vagina odour. So you should also consider using boric acid for faster results on how to get rid of vagina odour at home.
Antibiotics
As you probably already know by now, not all vagina odours are temporary; some are caused by underlying conditions like infections, so the tips we have discussed so far may not help you permanently eliminate the odour. What then should you now do since you are learning how to get rid of vagina odour at home.
It is time to consider antibiotics; if you think you may have an infection because of the other signs you have noticed, which may include itching, heavy discharge, and soreness, then you need to see a medical professional for an antibiotic prescription. When you treat this underlying cause, your vagina odour will surely go away with the other symptoms.
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Vagina odours that occur due to a recent change in activities or environment usually go away after a while if what triggers it has been taken care of; however, vagina odour due to infection may not go away until the infection is properly treated. Therefore, if you notice you have symptoms of an infection, you should first treat it before taking care of the vagina odour; otherwise, it won’t go away.
Also, note that most of the tips on how to get rid of vagina odour at home that we have discussed in this guide are normal things you should do at all times to maintain a healthy vagina, so do not stop when your vagina odour goes away.
