Women often ask if douching is healthy or okay to do. Generally speaking, vaginal douching is not recommended as it can upset the normal healthy bacterial balance of the vagina. More often, women are getting this message from their healthcare providers and it’s gotten to the point where some videos are even making fun of the ridiculousness of douching advertisements. Like this one:
It harkens back to when I was on the Tyra Banks Show last Fall. From the Mom Logic blog:
"Sex researcher Dr. Debby Herbenick pops by Tyra today to chat about women and their "hoo-ha." And quite frankly, "down there" never looked, well, so cuddly. Tyra begins the hour by giving her audience a test to see if they can name all the parts of the vagina with unbelievable results: 89 percent of her audience filled out the anatomical chart incorrectly. In related news, 89 percent of our husbands don’t know what to do with those parts anyway. "
Visit her blog here.
This was a particularly interesting question, in my opinion, that we received at Kinsey Confidential. In situations where women and men haven’t learned a lot about their bodies, they sometimes make assumptions about what something "means". We all do this! We try to make sense of reasons why we have pimples, why our noses run, why our hair turns gray earlier than we hoped it would, and such. In the case of genitals, our culture carries a lot of shame around sexuality and sometimes people make assumptions about normal genital function, thinking that it means something other than it does. In this case, a male reader was wondering if his girlfriend’s vaginal size was a sign that she had cheated on him with someone else.
Here is his question:
"My girlfriend and I have been sexually active for months and she has always felt the same, tightness wise, to me. I hadn’t seen her for two weeks and when I returned it seems her vagina has gotten wider. Is there any way for this to have happened without her cheating on me?"
You can listen to my response on our Kinsey Confidential podcast here:
I received this email today (below) from the National Vulvodynia Association (the term "vulvodynia" refers to vulvar pain). Apparently a woman is writing a book related to vulvodynia and is hoping to get in touch with women to learn more about their experiences. Here is the information:
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Dear NVA Friend,
The NVA was contacted by a woman who is writing a book on vulvodynia and other vulvar pain disorders. She is interested in including patient stories in the book. If you are interested in sharing your history with her (can remain anonymous), please send an email to Stacie Vaughn at vpain_research@hotmail.com, summarizing the following:
- when your symptoms began - description of your symptoms - summary of treatments you’ve tried and how effective they’ve been Sincerely,
Chris Veasley
NVA Associate Executive Director
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Yikes! Vaginal cuts and tears from sex - especially non-lubricated sex - can hurt. Listen to this Kinsey Confidential podcast listener’s question about discomfort and post-sex bleeding, and my response, here. Check out the Kinsey Confidential or NPR site for more information about our podcasts, which are produced by an amazing team at WFIU at Indiana Univeristy.
The Hospital for Sick Children (I know, not the best name) has the COOLEST web site I have seen all week… maybe even in many weeks. If you go to this page on their site, then click on Genitals on the left hand side, you can see how fetal genital development happens (in a nutshell, of course, nothing too complex is shown here). When I teach human sexuality, I like to point out how the tissue that becomes the head of the penis also becomes the clitoral glans, and the tissue that becomes a male scrotum becomes the labia majora in women, and so on. Doing so, I think, can help students to learn about how our genitals are more similar than we realize, as well as issues around sensitivity (like how the head of the penis and the clitoral glans are sensitive in similar ways). Wow - you have go to play around with this site.
This one is tampon-related:
In this article, about female genital cosmetic surgeries that have been available for some years in the US now becoming available in South Africa, I found the following two quotes to be of interest:
“Sex has become a medical issue,” Wasserman said. “Is it a right of patients to request these operations as a form of healthcare, just because they have now become fashionable items?”
Well, is it a patient’s right? What about nose and breast cosmetic surgery? Where does one draw the line? What is a patient’s right to request and what is not? And the second quote:
She believes plastic surgery to the labia can damage sensitivity and cause problems with arousal. “It is like elective genital mutilation and women who opt for the procedure without having a legitimate health reasons for doing so should seek counselling. Often these women have eating disorders, depression or anxiety.”
Well, technically we don’t know if there is any association between the desire for labiaplasty and eating disorders, depression or anxiety. Why don’t we know whether this is true or not? Because there has still not been a scientific research study on the topic. Hopefully there will be more research on this topics soon so that women can make informed decisions about their health and well-being.
Recently I was sitting in my doctor’s office waiting room reading WebMD magazine (who knew they had a magazine???). In their "Hot Hits" list they identify the "most popular topics on WebMD.com right now" and #8 was vaginal health. That thrills me to no end! It wasn’t that long ago - less than a decade - when The Vagina Monologues burst onto the scene and made waves for openly talking about the vagina. Some communities and individuals strill struggle with the "v" word. As someone who studies vaginal and vulvar health issues, I was happy to see that not only are people searching for information about vaginal health but that WebMD didn’t take the easy way out and cut the list to "top 5" or such as a way of short-changing the vagina and burying this information.
My only complaint is that toward the end of this particular issue, there was sexual health information that I found to be fairly problematic. I could have done a better job with it.
The Gynaecological Awareness and Information Network (GAIN) of Australia has let us know about an event they are co-hosting on Saturday March 29 at the Agnes Walsh House at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Bagot Road, Subiaco. The event highlights three key speakers and also includes tea and musical entertainment. Learn more by contacting GAIN directly through their web site. If you live in or around the area, please do consider attending - GAIN is a tremendous organization that works to raise awareness about vulvar cancer and other gynecological issues, and they could use your support.