Similar to the menstruation process, vaginal hygiene is considered taboo as well in India. Not many women fill comfortable speaking on these issues freely in rural India, while urban India is slowly coping to meet the expectations of freedom of expression. However, not many feel comfortable speaking or sharing tips on ways to maintain good feminine hygiene.
The key aspect of vaginal hygiene is to keep the genitals swish clean while keeping infections from the reproductive tract at bay. Feminine hygiene care doesn’t have any age to adopt as there aren’t any basic age brackets for vaginal hygiene rules to follow.
Importance of Vaginal Hygiene
Ignoring the issues of vaginal hygiene can terribly impact personal health while leading to too many complications in the future. Right from impacting the vaginal area with severe infection, to painful intercourse, there are many more ill consequences of not keeping up the personal hygiene care.
Here are a few things one should consider to keep up the personal hygiene of the feminine area.
1. Keep undergarment dry
Speaking about undergarment, we are specifically talking about the panty right now. Wearing wet panty can trigger bad odour while forming a breeding ground for various viruses and bacteria. Your sensitive skin down there would not need much time to get infected. Hence, it is extremely important to keep the area dry by ensuring your panty isn’t wet. Wetness can be caused after urinating and not wiping the area properly. Make sure you are using toilet tissue each time after using the washroom to get rid of panty wetness. The panty can be wet due to vaginal fluid discharge as well. Hence, ensure to use panty liners on excess discharge, or else wipe the area through with soft tissues.
2. Change sanitary when menstruating
The gynaecologist strongly vouches for the hygiene habit of regularly changing the sanitary napkins at regular intervals. Any sanitary napkin that a woman wears shouldn’t exceed a duration of 4 hours whether the flow is light or not. Similarly, you should be changing tampons every 6 hours to maintain personal hygiene. Not doing so could lead to bad odour, itching, and rashes, while putting you at risk of vaginal infection.
3. Clean the vagina after intercourse
It is important to maintain a healthy hygiene habit by cleaning the vagina after intercourse. Indulging in intercourse has a drawback as fluid discharge and other particles might come in contact, triggering minor infections. Cleaning up yourself down there with water can keep minor infections and UTIs (Urinary Tract Infection) at bay.
4. Don’t use soap or harsh detergents
Using a fragrance based cleaner or soap to clean the feminine area down there can disturb the pH level, causing irritation and itching. To maintain a healthy pH balance, it is highly recommended to use an expert intimate cleanser with an ideal pH level that promotes a healthy vagina. Try using Fem-O-Fresh Intimate Wash from Tafrepa to maintain natural and long-lasting feminine hygiene care.
5. Don’t wear tight clothes
Healthcare experts strongly suggest wearing loose clothes, especially undergarments to void infection and allow the area to breathe. Tight, synthetic material panties stimulate profuse sweating in both men and women while locking in moisture to enable the growth of bacterial infection. Also, it is highly recommended to change the undergarments after the workout session.
6. Wipe it right
The key rule to maintain general feminine hygiene care is to wipe from the front to back and not the other way around. Doing it wrong can lead to the passing of infection from the back to the front.
7. Avoid self-medicating
In case are experiencing symptoms of vaginal infection, it is strongly recommended to avoid medicating yourself at home. There are higher chances of self-medicating could abruptly ruin the condition and make it worse. Hence, it is strongly recommended to get the symptoms diagnosed and treat under a doctor’s supervision.
