Bacterial vaginosis is a common and often mild infection that affects the female vagina. Bacterial vaginosis happens when the bacteria in your vagina multiply or develop too quickly, resulting in a bacteria surplus. This surplus then causes a bacterial imbalance, leading to a vaginal infection.
Although extremely common, bacterial vaginosis is usually a minor, treatable infection. In most cases, antibiotics and home remedies are enough to cure bacterial vaginosis, and it rarely leads to complications.
Unlike many other health conditions, there’s a very short and definite list of signs and symptoms that could indicate you have bacterial vaginosis.
If you experience any of these symptoms, seeing a doctor is important. Even if you don’t have bacterial vaginosis, these symptoms are irregular and indicate a potential health problem.
Bacteria play an important role in the health and integrity of the human vagina. As such, every vagina, healthy or otherwise, contains bacteria. However, when there’s an unexpected surplus of vaginal bacteria, it can lead to an infection known as bacterial vaginosis. While this condition always results from overdevelopment of healthy bacteria, it’s unknown what causes the overdevelopment.
However, a few known risk factors can increase your chances of developing bacterial vaginosis.
Your chances of getting bacterial vaginosis also increase if you engage in unprotected sex, are pregnant, have sex with a new partner, or have an IUD. While these factors increase the chances of bacterial vaginosis, anyone can develop it.
If your doctor suspects you have bacterial vaginosis, there are several tests they can perform. Before testing, however, your doctor will take a physical and verbal history to determine your symptoms and whether or not you have any of the risk factors listed above. If your symptoms and risk factors align with bacterial vaginosis, here are a few additional tests your doctor may perform.
In most cases, bacterial vaginosis is a fairly easy condition to diagnose, and a simple trip to your doctor is often enough.
Usually, bacterial vaginosis is a highly treatable and considered a fairly minor condition. In rare cases, however, bacterial vaginosis can lead to complications such as preterm birth or the spread of infection. If you want to avoid these complications, it’s important to seek diagnosis and treatment rather than wait to see if your condition will resolve independently.
The best and only treatment for bacterial vaginosis is with medications. Here are the most common options that doctors use.
Once you’ve received a diagnosis and treatment plan, it’s important to take your medications as prescribed to avoid a reoccurrence of the condition.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any proven over-the-counter drugs to help with bacterial vaginosis. Therefore, prevention is the best treatment for bacterial vaginosis if you can’t afford it or don’t have access to antibiotics. Prevention includes not practicing unprotected sex, not having sex with multiple partners, and not douching.