Many women always feel that they have leukorrhea, they think it is inflammation, they like to use “pads”, they also like to buy some “care solution”, “cleaning solution” to wash the vulva, rinse the vagina, individual women also use their fingers wrapped in towels to scrub into the vagina, in order to completely remove the leukorrhea, in the name of “health care”. The individual women also use their fingers wrapped in towels to scrub into the vagina in order to completely remove the leucorrhea, the beautiful name: “health care”, but the leucorrhea is not only not clean, but the more you wash, the more. The more you wash, the more you wash, and the more bacteria you “wash” into your vagina, the more unclean you are, the more unclean you are, forming a strange circle of female “cleansing”. It is true that many women who like to clean their vaginas fall into this circle and end up seeking treatment from gynecologists because of the serious vaginitis that affects their daily life. In my clinical work, I often encounter patients who ask: “I have repeated vaginitis, and I have been treated by many doctors in many hospitals, but not only have I not been cured of vaginitis, but I feel more and more uncomfortable the more I “treat” it, and the more I wash my leucorrhea, the more I have! Why is that? Faced with a patient who was full of doubts, the author’s answer was: the reason is that you do not get proper treatment, overuse or abuse of drugs cause the local resistance in the vagina to decline, so it is easy to occur vaginitis. After careful examination, the author chose the necessary medication and instructed the patient to stop using all topical medication, the vaginitis was quickly cured and the leucorrhea became normal. Why does the leukorrhea get more and more frequent? The leucorrhoea is a small amount of mucus-like material secreted from the vagina, which is white and translucent, such as egg white, and is a tasteless or (in the days before and after menstruation) mildly ironic secretion. Leukorrhea does not cause symptoms of vulvar irritation.
The amount of leukorrhea secretion is related to age, menstrual cycle and sexual activity. In women of childbearing age, the leucorrhea increases significantly in the days between menstrual periods, and even flows out automatically, like egg whites, which can be “stretched”. In pregnant women, menstruation “stops”, but leucorrhea increases significantly. For girls in love, the amount of leucorrhea production also increases. During passionate sexual activity, the production of leucorrhea is even higher. All this is the result of the action of estrogen in the female body. Leukorrhea is the vaginal secretion. The amount of vaginal secretions in women is influenced by the estrogen produced by the ovaries in the body. Estrogen has the effect of causing the cervical canal to secrete mucus and increasing vaginal mucosal exudate. Generally, on the day when the menstrual flow is just clean, the estrogen level in the body is low and the mucus secreted by the cervical canal is low, resulting in less vaginal discharge, which appears thick and cloudy. This is when the vaginal discharge (secretion) is large, some like clear nasal water, clear and transparent, very sticky, can “pull silk”. It often makes the pubic area feel moist, especially in young and middle-aged women. When the level of estrogen increases and when stimulated by sexual excitement, the tissue of the cervix and vaginal wall becomes engorged with blood and exudates more fluid, resulting in more leucorrhea. Similarly, when pregnant, the placenta secretes a large amount of estrogen and progesterone into the pregnant woman’s body, the cervical canal and vaginal wall become engorged with blood and leaking fluid increases significantly, which is also a normal physiological reaction. In older women during menopause, the secretion of leucorrhea is sparse because of low ovarian function, low estrogen levels and atrophy of genital tissues. As you can see, normal leucorrhea is one of the information about the health of the female reproductive system and is a physiological manifestation of normal health, never an unclean thing. A healthy human body has a sound defense system to resist the invasion of various pathogenic factors from outside every moment, and a balanced ecological environment exists to keep all physical and mental activities in the body under relatively constant conditions. The combination of these two is the body’s immunity. The opening of the vagina is connected to the outside world, and the external substances entering the vagina can enter the pelvic and abdominal cavities through the uterus and fallopian tubes, so the vagina is directly connected to the inside of the abdominal cavity. The vagina is like the customs of the country, once you pass through it, you enter the country and can reach any part of the country at will in all directions, so it’s really defensible. Fortunately, the vagina has a defensive barrier, which is the ecology of the vagina. The ecological balance of the vagina must be maintained in order for the vagina to function as a barrier. The vaginal ecosystem is composed of the vaginal flora and the immune system (immune antibodies, white blood cells, etc.), and they are in balance. In a healthy person, the balance of the vaginal ecosystem is like an interlocking chain. If one of the links is disrupted, the balance is lost and the vaginal barrier is destroyed. So, how does the vagina maintain its ecological balance? The normal vagina is not sterile, but on the contrary, there are a variety of parasitic flora growing in the vagina, which is a group of various normal symbiotic bacteria, such as Lactobacillus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus, non-hemolytic Streptococcus, Corynebacterium, Gardnerella, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus, Streptococcus faecalis, Bacillus, as well as Mycoplasma and Pseudomonas (Candida). Although a variety of bacterial microorganisms are present in the normal vagina, they are not pathogenic because these microflora form an ecological balance with each other. Estrogen, Lactobacillus and vaginal pH play an important role in maintaining the ecological balance of the vagina. Under physiological conditions, estrogen thickens the vaginal epithelium and enriches it with glycogen, increasing its resistance to pathogens. Glycogen is broken down by Lactobacillus vaginalis into lactic acid, which maintains an acidic environment (pH 3.8-4.4) in the vagina and inhibits the growth of other pathogens, which is called “vaginal self-cleaning”. Therefore, among the normal vaginal flora, Lactobacillus, which can produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), is the dominant bacterium. Besides maintaining the acidic environment of the vagina, the hydrogen peroxide produced by Lactobacillus, in coordination with the anti-microbial factors secreted by the vaginal wall and the cervical canal, can inhibit or kill other bacteria or microorganisms that multiply excessively. The leucorrhoea of normal women plays a role in keeping the pH of the vagina between 3.8 and 4.4. The leucorrhoea of normal women contains a certain amount of various antibodies and contains a certain amount of white blood cells (white blood cells have a self-defense role in phagocytosis and destruction of germs). The leucorrhoea of normal women makes the lactobacilli in the vagina proliferate and become the dominant bacteria. If the estrogen in the body decreases or the vaginal pH changes beyond the normal range for a long time, such as vaginal irrigation that raises the vaginal pH, or frequent sexual intercourse (the vaginal pH can rise to 7.2 after sexual intercourse and stay there for 6-8 hours), these are not conducive to the growth of Lactobacillus. In addition, prolonged application of antibiotics can inhibit the growth of Lactobacillus, or when the body’s immunity is low, other bacterial organisms can multiply in the vagina and become dominant, which is a condition that causes vaginitis. There are two possible pathways of vaginitis: one is the invasion of invasive microorganisms such as Trichomonas, Candida, and gonococcus, and the other is the proliferation of conditionally pathogenic bacteria in the vagina, when the dominant bacteria, Lactobacillus, are suppressed or even disappear. In terms of the effectiveness of the chosen medication, vaginitis is divided into: atopic vaginitis and non-atopic vaginitis. Atopic vaginitis refers to trichomoniasis, vaginal pseudomycosis (also called vaginal candidiasis or mycosis), gonorrhea, etc. This type of vaginitis can be treated with specific drugs. This type of vaginitis is mostly caused by the disruption of the vaginal ecosystem and the imbalance of the normal vaginal flora, resulting in the proliferation of one or several conditional pathogenic bacteria, such as bacterial vaginosis, chlamydia-mycoplasma vaginitis and senile vaginitis. However, it is worth mentioning that if the vaginal ecosystem is not protected and the normal flora is not regulated, the proliferation of the very small amount of Candida vaginalis is often the reason for the persistence and recurrence of Pseudomonas vaginalis (Candida vaginitis). Thus, maintaining the ecological balance in the vagina itself is a natural defense against infection. Blindly using drugs to wash the vulva or douche the vagina, or even scrubbing the vagina with a towel wrapped around the finger, not only will bring pathogenic bacteria into the vagina, but the normal pH of the vagina will be changed by the external washing solution and the normal distribution of vaginal flora will be destroyed, causing the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria and vaginal inflammation, and also giving the opportunity to the outside invasive gonococcus, yeast, trichomonas, etc. This can lead to serious vaginitis and cervicitis, which should not occur. If vaginitis or even cervicitis occurs after washing or douching the vagina, the cervical canal and vaginal wall will become engorged with blood from pathogenic microorganisms and there will be a lot of leakage, and the vaginal discharge (leukorrhea) will of course increase. The leucorrhea (leucorrhea) will of course increase, but instead of treating vaginitis, the more you wash, the more you aggravate the dysbiosis in the vagina, so the more you wash, the more leucorrhea you will have.