3 ways Working Out can affect Your Vagina

In this episode I discuss vaginal issues that can possibly be caused by your workout and how to attempt to remedy them. Yeast infections, vaginal pain and tenderness and bacterial vaginosis. As always advice given on FVO should never replace a physical exam and recommendations from your own doctor. 

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of four Vaginas Only in this episode we're gonna talk about three ways that working out can actually affect your vagina. Let's hit it. Hello, and welcome to four vaginas. Only the podcast about everything. Female. I'm your host, Dr Celestine, bringing you important information about understanding your health and body in the way you wish your doctor would actually explain it. Okay, I know if you guys are like me and you exercise quite a bit, this episode might have piqued your interest a little bit. And to be honest, it's also peeked behind, which is why I'm recording this episode. So three ways that exercise and can actually affect your vagina. One would be yeast infections. Two would be actually desensitizing the labia and the outside of vagina. For those of us that are avid cyclists, So anybody does competitive cycling or even go to spin classes a lot. I know I d'oh! That's can be a potential problem. And the third being some things that you actually do during your workout after your workout can change the pH of the vagina, which can have some detrimental effects. So let's jump right into the episode. Okay, three ways working out can affect your vagina. First and foremost, yeast infections. No, I know that this is probably not new to a lot of you out there because I've seen a lot of people come in and complain of yeast infections, especially chronic yeast infections after working out or because they have active lifestyle, which is part of the reason why yeast infections can occur. There are other reasons, but in general, yeast actually likes a damp, sweaty environment. If you think for those big boob girls out there, which I'm not one, but I wish I was, sometimes underneath your boobs sometimes can get a little sweaty and red and irritated. And that's because if it hangs over the skin like that, yeast can kind of grow under there if you're not keeping it clean and dry regularly also for working out. So if you're wearing those tight leggings that everybody loves to wear these days, me included. I'm not judging, and they're not moisture wicking or cotton based. Sometimes you can get very sweaty in the groin area, and that can lead to yeast infections. Now, how do we fix this? OK, because we all like to wear a cute outfits. We all like to go to the gym, and we all like to sweat. One thing that's important. Don't stop going to the gym because of this. You just need to change the way that you dress sometimes. So we're more loose fitting clothes. And also, if you are wearing tighter clothes, change out of your sweaty clothes almost immediately after you come out of the gym shower, clean out that moist area and put on some loose fitting clothes after you work out. And there you go another way that working out can affect your vagina. Now this one is very workout specific. So this has to do with all of us out there that go to spin classes regularly. Or, if you cycle a lot just on a bicycle on the street and the vagina can actually get affected, Um, and sometimes even injured from the saddle, which is crazy to me. I don't even I mean, I know when I go to my spin class because I probably go to a spin class at least two or three times a week out here in West Virginia if I don't go in a while like say, go on vacation and I come back my vagina. It's definitely sore after class and probably for a few days afterwards as well. Sometimes I've even looked down there and seen a little bruising. Has that ever happened to any of you guys? I'm pretty sure it's common. So all you one pellet on writers out there. Yes, I'm jealous. I need to buy one. This could be a common issue for you, and it is so common or common enough that there's been studies out there done about it now, backtracking a little bit. There's been lots of studies actually out there for men that are cycling now. I don't deal with men, so I can't say I'm super up on their research. But from just a quick browse, it looks like it's been associated in the past cycling and men that it can lead to erectile dysfunction in some men and something called genital neuropathy, which is changing the sensation of the genital area and now studies air coming out that this actually can affect women as well, Probably because more of us are doing cycling. It's becoming a very common work out all these spin classes all over the place. So there's two articles in particular that I looked at. One was done back in 2012 by the Journal of Sexual Medicine that actually says that a cycling or at least competitive cycling can decrease genital sensation, which could potentially affect your sexual sensation, they say. And what they did was they looked at to the compared competitive cyclist two runners, 48 cyclists of 22 competitive runners, and they wanted to see what can actually help. What's the solution for this? And in this study, it showed that if the handlebars of your bike or at the level of the saddle or a little bit higher, it actually helps to decrease the risk of having issues with genital sensation. So that's one thing to think about, especially for us out there. It's cycling aggressively. The other study that was done in 2016 from the International Euro Gynecology Journal was actually just a review on what evidence was out there so far at that time, in terms of pelvic symptoms and female cyclists, they looked at 12 articles that fit their criteria, and they said that common symptoms related to bicycling and females were pain, tenderness and neuropathy. That loss of sensation on the general area. And it's very similar to what male cyclists also experience, which you kind of touched based on a little bit ago, They said. The best thing or to reduce these issues is the actual way that the saddle that you're sitting on on the bike is made. So a broader, more conventionally shaped saddle is actually more beneficial for women, and the way our pelvic floor is to decrease some of these effects. Now studies are still going on. Okay, so these things are not concrete, but I mean, hey, if they're out there so far, why not try them so that we can kind of minimize exactly how much our vagina is kind of getting injured and pounded on during the cycling rides? If you guys are having cyclers out there, you know exactly how that feels, like I said, especially when you're gone for a long time. So that is number two in terms of ways that exercise can affect your vagina. So now let's go to number three. So number three is sometimes the vagina. PH can change and that can lead to an infection known as bacterial vaginosis. Sometimes bacterial vaginosis, if you've ever listened to my vaginal discharge podcast episode has symptoms such as a grayish white vaginal discharge or what most people come to me. Complaining about is a fishy odor. Something called up in there and died. I hear a lot, so Ah, lot of times that can be bacterial, vaginal assis caveat. It could be other things other things could be going on. So any of these issues that you're having genital pain, general odor, general discharge make sure that you don't just take my word for it on four vaginas only podcast. But you see your actual doctor and get checked out. Make sure you're not missing something even bigger. Okay, All right. Back to the change in ph. So spectral vaginal assis can be a common reason for this. The way to prevent this. Do not re wear your workout clothes. Okay? So once you're done working out, you put them in the hamper. Don't put them back on, and they might be sweaty, wet. Just you know, you don't really want to do that. Second thing is showering after class so a lot of times you can go to work out, come home shower and then go about your day. Some people don't. Some people go work out and they go straight to work. So in order to kind of help yourself out, maybe work out at a gym that you have access to a shower or what some gynecologist have been suggesting is using a vaginal hygiene wipe and just wiping from front to back if you don't have access to a shower on, and that's to kind of get rid of the moisture and the sweat in that area to decrease the change in the pH. Now I don't normally suggest putting wives and things like that on the vagina, But I would say if you have the choice between not showering or just wiping the outside of the vagina from front to back, then yes, I would be an advocate for using a vaginal wipe, something that's it designed to be used in the vagina and what just wipe from front to back in orderto clear everything up down there. Now I know some things before, but I'll say it again. Do not do show a lot of people do sh after working out or do sh when they're sweaty, do not do because that changes the pH of the vagina even Maur, and increases your risk even more to bacterial vaginosis. So, in summary, the three things that can be affecting your vagina if you work out avidly one increased in yeast infections to desensitization of the vagina. If you're an avid cycler or three changing the pH of the vagina, that can lead to bacterial vaginal sis. So there you have it. Now don't get me wrong. Working out is amazing, and I do not want to dissuade any of you guys from working out at all. I would be hypocritical if I did that, because I work out probably six days a week. I don't really put it up that much on four vaginas, only Instagram, but I work out quite a bit, which includes a lot of cycling classes and a lot of weight lifting and a lot of sweating. So these things apply to me as well, and it's just good to know some little alterations you can make to your exercises and the way that you work out the clothes that you wear showering after things like that that can actually help and benefit your vaginal health. Because that's important. That's what we're here for. We are four vaginas only after all. So thank you guys So much for listening to another episode of four vaginas homely and I'll catch you next time. Bye.