Discharge

Lets talk about Vaginal Discharge once and for all! It can be normal and it can be abnormal. Interested in the difference? Take a listen to the latest FVO podcast episode!

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Hey, guys, back. It's been quite some time. Thank you for sticking with me and listen to another episode of your favorite podcast for vaginas only. I've been away for a while. If you follow the four vaginas on Lee Instagram Page, then you would know that I went on my honeymoon a little bit delayed, but we went toe the French Polynesia, mainly Bora, Bora, Moria and Tahiti. It was an amazing two week vacation than a straight after that literally. One day later, I got on another plane and had to fly out for work. I'm a local physician, as most of you may or may not know, so I travel from my job. Right now. I work in Pennsylvania, so I had to fly out and go work for a week. And then I'm back home now. And I am ready to continue recording and continue this process of learning about the female body and empowering females through knowledge with the four vaginas only podcast. So after that little spiel, today's topic is going to be discharge vaginal discharge a little bit more specifically, and I can't help but wanting to play that card evey song drip drip on here, but I know there's probably gonna be some sort of, like copyright infringement. But just imagine me playing that for the intro instead of your normal usual bounce in your chair intro that I'm gonna play right about now. 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 came through drip in drip drip. Those kind of gross, right? Probably a lot of you guys, But I'm a gynecologist. So it's not gross to me. This is what I see every single day anyway. Welcome to four vaginas on Lee. The Podcast About everything. Female. I am your host, Dr Celestine. And on today's episode, which I believe is Episode 12 we are going to be discussing vaginal discharge. What's normal? What's abnormal? Um, mostly I get a lot of questions in the office of people that come in with discharge, and I would say most of the time it's normal, but there are some times when it could be abnormal. So let's go through what those details actually are. All right. So with vaginal discharge. Just to be clear, some women don't have vaginal discharge at all, Really, if any time, even during their menstrual cycle. While some women have vaginal discharge every single day, both of which are normal as long as you don't have any of the other accompanying symptoms we're gonna talk about with different types of abnormal discharge. So having vaginal discharge every day without it being itchy without having any odor with that being the same kind of color or consistency that it usually always is, is normal. A lot of girls and women come to me saying, You know, I have this discharge every day and it cannot be normal. I don't know what to do about it, but it can be very normal. It's what we called physiologic discharge. Your body just makes a discharge, and the discharge can change just a little bit as you go through your menstrual cycle. So let's talk about that so the menstrual cycle in general could be anywhere from 21 to 35 days long. We call it a menstrual cycle because, you know, just like a circle when you think it's gone, it turns around and comes right back, right? If you're a female, you what I'm talking about. You get this bleed every single month, and you know it can disrupt your life sometimes. But it's just part of being who we are. So anyway, 21 to 35 days in total length is a normal cycle, with the bleeding part, your period being usually around 2 to 8 days, depending on who you are. The two day women so lucky. 18 women not so much, but hopefully it's not too heavy or destructive in your life. If it is, go see your gynecologist. Maybe we could help you out with that. So the menstrual cycle, if you think of it as a normal, is a 28 day cycle. Let's say, which is a common amount of time that the mental cycle can be Day one through five. Let's save. You have five days of your period. That's when you're bleeding. Day six through eight. Your vaginal discharge can be even like a thick or white consistency, and sometimes people see some brown spotting or streaking in that discharge, and that's because your period just ended that old blood that's kind of sitting in your uterus is still coming out a little bit during that time frame. Day nine through 12 the discard discharge can change into even like a creamy her lotion quality. I know I'm probably ruining lotion for a lot of you out there, but a creamy lotions quality and can be increased and increased amount of discharge than you had in the previous few days in day 13 to 14. This is about smack dab in the middle of your cycle in people that have a 28 day cycle. If your cycles longer these days will be a little bit different, but in terms of the discharge that is produced is about the same. So in a 28 day cycle on days 13 to 14 is around the time that population happens. The discharge of that time can be almost like an egg white consistency. Thin, slippery, stretchy. This is the perfect time to get pregnant. The discharge sets so thin is in the vagina, and it's not blocking the cervix as much as the creamy lotions or thick and white discharge so the sperm can go through. Now, if you're not trying to get pregnant and, you know, stay away from having unprotected intercourse. Used birth control. Take a look back at my birth Control Podcast episode to find out which one might be the right one for you and use condoms also. But if you are wanted to get pregnant and hey, go for it. So then, after day 13 to 14 you have about days 15 to 28. So that rounds out the 28 day cycle and your discharge starts to become thicker again and goes away usually about the time that you're going to start bleeding again for your menstrual periods. So right back to the beginning, a cycle got it anyway. So that is a normal menstrual cycle and how the discharge can change in that time frame. Now, Like I said before, not everybody has discharged all the time or every day. But if you do and it's similar to this discharge that I just described, then it's normal, OK, and one thing I just want to clarify about all of that is even if you're not in days 10 through 14 where you have that thin discharge and can get pregnant, you can still get pregnant on any day of your menstrual cycle. Okay, so if you're not trying to get pregnant in general on any day of the year, you need to be using condoms or using birth control. All right, Okay, now let's move on. Now let's go on to talk about some discharge that can be abnormal. Now there's a few different things, which we label as vaginal itis that can cause abnormal discharge. The 1st 1 that I see very commonly is something called bacterial vaginosis. So I think I've talked about this in previous podcast episodes. The vagina has bacteria, and everybody's does, you know, just come to terms with that fact. But bacteria is usually good. Bacteria also makes a little bit of yeast, and that's what keeps the vagina clean for the most part, the self cleaning Oregon that could take care of itself. But there's certain things, such as the use of antibiotics for a certain period of time, sex in itself, do Shing, which is why we say Do Shing is bad. Don't ever do it. Also, if you're using condoms spermicide that can sometimes cause some issues down there, things like this can change the bacteria in the vagina and wipe out some of that good bacteria, which leaves room for bad bacteria and overgrowth of yeast toe happen. So when this bad bacteria starts to build up, it can cause bacterial vaginosis. So bacterial vaginosis is not an STD. It's not something you got from somebody else. It's just swapping out of the good bacteria with the bad bacteria, depending on what how that came about, like some of the reasons that I just mentioned. So for B V. The discharge for that is usually a thin, slippery discharge that can be a grayish in color or even a little bit of green in color. But the main thing that I find people come in and when their diagnosis factual, vaginal assis is. They talk about this odor, we say, as a fishy odor. I've had people come to me and say, It's sour or it smells like something's crawled up in there and died. I've had beautiful say it smells like they're walking through a fish market. Um, all of these things can describe that fishy odor of bacterial vaginosis. Usually back to imagine us is not really itchy. It doesn't cause itching, irritation of vagina usually, but I have seen it happen as well. And the main thing is that odor that I see most commonly and it's treatable with just medication. So not anything that we cannot manage. Okay, the next type of discharge that can happen with a vaginal itis is a yeast infection. A lot of people are very familiar with East infections. Thies This type of discharges usually white and lumpy, and it causes a lot of itching, burning and irritation of the vagina. Sometimes it can be all the itching and burning on the inside, or a lot of itching and burning on the outside on the labia. It could even turn the labia red in color from just the irritation are also from people itching it. Ah, yeast infection, similar to be vey, happens when you disrupt the normal bacteria of the vagina, and also something that could be easily treated and taken care of, and also something that is not an STD. Okay, our next one that is an STD is tricking bonus. So trick Ramona's the discharge and associated with that is a yellowish gray to green discharge, and it can kind of also cause some irritation as well. I'm not gonna talk about what we eat when I put the speculum in what I can also see what trichomoniasis And when I put it on a slide what I can see. Ah, we'll get to that. Maybe if I do a full, uh, podcast episode on STDs. But anyway, so the yellow greenish your great discharge, with also some slight irritation, can happen as well. And last but not least, there is something called a trophic vaginal itis, which means vaginal is that happens because the vagina is dry, usually in times when the body is producing low amounts of estrogen so commonly seen a menopausal women but also can happen in women that are breastfeeding because breastfeeding decreases your estrogen hormone. Um, I guess the main point that I want to drive home is that having discharge can be completely normal as long as you don't have any of the greenish gray. Someone crawled up in me and died smell irritating of the vagina symptoms, which kind of sums up everything we just talked about. Then your vaginal discharges probably normal, but if anything seems a little bit off to you. If yeah, you have discharged every day, but now it seems a little different or anything like that. Make sure you see your gynecologist and have them examine you and possibly test your discharge. Many things seems abnormal to them. It's always important not to just take my word for it, but to see your doctor that knows you very well because you've been seeing them for some time, even though I would love to know you very well, too. But it is only so much I can know across this microphone and make sure that they check you out and that you're not missing something that might be going out with your body. So that's it for my vaginal discharge spiel. Thank you guys very much for tuning into another episode of four vaginas only. Please don't forget that if you would like to follow for vaginas on Lee in Social Media, we have a Facebook page name for vaginas only, and also on Instagram page, named for vaginas only, which includes some stuff not only related to the podcast but also related to my everyday life and talking about being overjoyed. I n physician, especially some of my traveling stuff since I'm a traveling obi Joanne doctor for right now. And just, um maybe some fun vacation pictures, things like that. And also I have a blogged for vaginas only website. I think it's f ve only dot com. I've really updated it recently, but I'm planning on putting some more traveling stuff up there and some more educational material as well in the near future. So stay tuned for all of that. Follow us on social media and keep hanging on listening to us every two weeks so that you can learn a little bit more about your body until next time. Bye, guys.