Can probiotics help in treating vaginal infections (bacterial vaginosis)?

It helps to keep both your gut and vagina healthy.

Vaginal infections in women are a common occurrence. Often it is more prevalent in adolescent girls, teenagers and middle-aged women. Of course, vaginal problems do show up during the pre and postmenopausal phase too but here we are talking about the bacterial and yeast infections that are common in younger women. A woman s vagina is a haven to a wide range of microbes from a pool of over 50 species. Of which, lactobacilli are the most common, particularly in healthy women. There are good and bad bacteria housed in the region a balance of which keeps the vagina healthy and maintains its pH balance. A healthy vaginal pH value is somewhere between 3.8 and 4.5, which is in the acidic range. Here are ways to keep your vagina healthy.

Till this pH balance is maintained your vagina is healthy and devoid of any immediate health crisis. However, if the balance of the good-bad bacteria goes haywire and the pH balance is disturbed it could lead to a host of problems that can be irksome to deal. When this happens it is usually a depletion of the good lactobacilli that leads to overgrowth of bad bacteria which in turns gives rise to bad odour, irritation, itching or a bacterial infection. If care is not taken to restore the pH balance back it could lead to bacterial vaginosis too. Here are causes of a smelly vagina that you should know.

The most conventional way to treat bacterial vaginosis is an application of prescribed antimicrobial creams to treat the infections. But with time the bacteria and even yeast develop resistance to the treatment and there could be a recurrence. Ointments and creams treat the symptoms of bacterial vaginosis superficially; also there are chances that these ointments can wash up the remnant good bacteria which make it easier for the pathogens or bad bacteria to regroup and grow. The other reasons for recurrence could also be getting an infection from the sex partner, microbes in the gut that invade the vaginal area or just failure of the prescribed treatment.

This is a reason to treat the bacterial, yeast or UTI infection in young women, especially those who suffer from their recurrence. This is why an alternative approach which promises better result than the conventional one is a welcome idea. There are studies that indicate that probiotics can be used to treat vaginal infections as they help to restore the pH balance and inhibit the growth of pathogens or bad bacteria. This concept is not new. In fact, the earliest study that established this fact that having probiotics can repopulate the good bacteria or lactobacilli in the vaginal area is dated back to 2001. Other studies that were conducted later to understand the connection between probiotics and vaginal health reinstated this fact. Probiotics, when consumed orally the stains of lactobacilli, would pass through the intestine reach the rectum and then ascend into the vagina. This promotes the growth of good bacteria which helps to restore the pH balance of the area and reduce incidences of infection bacterial, yeast or other forms of UTIs. Here are ways to add probiotics to your diet.

To ensure that you get enough probiotic through your diet to keep your gut and the vagina healthy try adding curd, yoghurt and buttermilk to your diet. If you are lactose intolerant then try fermented soy milk, fermented vegetables, olives stored in salt solutions as probiotics thrive on them.

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Reference:

Cribby, S., Taylor, M., & Reid, G. (2008). Vaginal Microbiota and the Use of Probiotics. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases, 2008, 256490. http://doi.org/10.1155/2008/256490