The care and keeping of your vagina

Image of The Great Wall of Vagina project by artist Jamie McCartney

Vaginas don’t exactly come with a user’s manual, and; unlike other body parts, the majority of vaginal anatomy is internal. It can be tricky to tell what’s going on “down there” when you can’t see stuff easily. Here are seven ways to get better acquainted with yourself and keep you and your internal bits healthy and happy!

1. Get to know your parts. Familiarity with your own body is the best way to learn what is normal for you and to be able to identify when things are different from your usual baseline. Just like eyes, ears, noses, and bellybuttons, everyone’s genitals are unique. Use a mirror and your fingers to check yours out. Learn what your skin looks like, how the different parts of your anatomy feel, and the size of things in relation to each other. You can learn more about basic vagina anatomy here.
   
   
   
2. Get to know your cycle. Most vagina owners also have a uterus and ovaries, and go through a regular menstrual cycle where the body prepares to potentially get pregnant. A big part of keeping you and your vag healthy is keeping tabs on your cycle. This post isn’t going to get into the minute details (but if you want to nerd out, there is a post that does!). It’s as simple as keeping track on a calendar of when you get your period. Mark the first day you start bleeding, and how many days your bleeding lasts. That’s it. You can certainly keep more detailed notes, but you really just need the basics. There are lots of apps out there to make this super easy.
   
   
   
3. Let your vagina do its job. Your vagina is actually very capable of taking care of itself. It is self cleaning. Decades of misogyny and marketing have tried to convince us otherwise - Lysol was originally a douching product - but you do not need any special soaps, washes, or douches for your vag. In fact, using soaps or vinegar or other wash items in your vagina can mess up the balance of pH and healthy bacteria that keep bad bacteria and germs out. The only thing you need to do is gently wash your external parts (labia, pubic hair, perineum) with your regular body soap when you’re in the shower, and then rinse well. No heavy rubbing, scrubbing, or internal washcloth required.
   
   
   
4. Let your vagina breathe. Putting soaps, creams, or lotions inside your vagina can mess up the pH and healthy bacteria. So can letting your vagina sit in damp swimsuits or underwear for long stretches of time. Change out of wet swimsuits as soon as you get back from the beach or pool. Take an extra pair of clean underwear to the gym; even if you don’t have time for a shower after a workout, change out of your sweaty clothes into dry ones. Cotton underwear has long been the recommended underwear of Ob-Gyns to allow good airflow, although any quick-dry breathable fabric is fine. Some people sleep commando to ensure their lady bits get to spend some time in the breeze.
   
   
   
5. Use safety equipment when playing with others. An infection free vagina is a happy vagina. Protect your vagina from sexually transmitted infections by using condoms with new partners and when you’re not in a mutually monogamous relationship. Ideally you and your partners should have a conversation about sexual history basics and get tested before foregoing condoms.
   
   
   
6. Make a pregnancy plan. As in, if you don’t want to be pregnant right now, make a plan for how not to get pregnant. (If you do want to get pregnant, make a plan for that too). Condoms are great in that they protect against both STIs and pregnancy, and they’re generally easy to get ahold of. However, you can’t use one if you don’t have one. Birth control options of the “set it and forget it” variety minimize opportunities for human error and mean your vagina is always prepared and protected from pregnancy. A good backup plan to have ready is Plan B. If your first-line birth control method fails, Plan B can prevent ovulation and prevent pregnancy. The sooner you take it, the more effective it is, but it can still work up to 5 days after unprotected intercourse.
   
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7. Get your regular check-ups. An annual visit to a woman’s health care provider sets aside time for you to focus on your health goals and needs. It’s one of the best self-care steps you can take! You can make sure your vagina is doing its regular healthy thing, comprehensively protect yourself from or plan for pregnancy, and get appropriate screenings to identify potential issues early, when they are often much easier to treat or manage. Finding a provider that you like is helpful, too, as a way to prepare for those times when your vagina isn’t happy and healthy. When exams and questions get a little more awkward and uncomfortable because you’re having an issue, it’s nice to feel like you’re working together with someone you know and trust to figure out a problem.
   
   Need to check in with a vagina expert? That’s totally my job! Come see me, I’m really good at having conversations about vaginas in a non-awkward way.

©2017 Chelsea Gould