Bacterial vaginosis

There is a great number of microorganisms in the vagina of every woman. The total of these microorganisms is called microflora. When the microorganisms coexist peacefully, everything is in order. But when their balance is distrupted (the number of some bacteria becomes bigger or less than necessary) a disease affects a womans genitals thus provoking problems that concern sexual health. One of these diseases is called bacterial vaginosis (BV). It is provoked by a little bacterium called gardnerella vaginalis.
Bacterial vaginosis is a purely female disease. According to the statistic data, today about 20 percent of women aged from 18 to 50 suffer from bacterial vaginosis.

How do women get bacterial vaginosis?

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Bacterial vaginosis is not a sexually transmitted disease. It has not been proved yet that BV can be passed on through sexual contact.
There are the following factors that can provoke bacterial vaginosis:
Douching, especially with antiseptics containing chloride
Use of contraceptives containing sperm-killing agent 9-nonoxynol
Condoms with spermicide lubricants
Big number of sex partners
A recent change of sex partner
Use of vaginal tablets
Taking antibiotics for a long time
Lack of diary products in diet
Chronic diseases of bowels

Symptoms of Bacterial vaginosis

There is one peculiar sign of this disease:abnormal vaginal discharges with a rather unpleasant fish-like odor. Vulvar lips redden and swell, a woman feels burning or itch, especially after intercourse or during urination. Though, the disease is not a sexually transmitted one, it affects mostly sexual health.

Complications

Bacterial vaginosis used to be considered harmless. But scientists found out that there are some risks from BV such as:
Female infertility
Prematury birth
Complications of pregnancy and labour
Besides these, bacterial vaginosis increases the possibility that a HIV-infected woman can infect her sex partner

Testing of Bacterial vaginosis

If you suspect that you might have bacterial vaginosis you should visit your doctor. Only a specialist can tell you exactly whether you are ill or not and prescribe the treatment correctly.
Test for bacterial vaginosis is quite simple. Usually it implies taking swabs from vagina.
Also you may be asked to give a sample of blood for analysis, because the number of lecocytes dicreases if a woman has bacterial vaginosis, though the same can happen in cases with other diseases.

Treatment and precaution

Bacterial vaginosis is treated with antibiotics. It addition, vitamins and medicines normalizing microflora can be prescribed. When you recover you will have to be tested again. It is very important that not only a woman should receive medical treatment, but all her sexual partners as well. Though men do not suffer from BV, they can be carriers of gardnella vaginalis (bacteria provoking the disease). It means that BV precaution does not differ much from precaution of other diseases concerning sexual health.
You should:
Use condoms
Avoid casual sexual contacts
Use anticeptics within 2 hours after a casual intercourse
Also you should not douche with contraceptives containing nonoxynol and use vaginal tablets, because some their constituents disrupt normal vaginas microflore.
And remember that enough amount of diary products prevents you from any disruptions of the normal bacteria balance and from bacterial vaginosis as well.