Chennai: Every woman in her life-time experiences it – vaginal white discharge. A few say it is healthy and a few others term it ‘unhealthy’.
News Today spoke to Fortis Malar consultant senior gynaecologist, Dr Jaishree Gajaraj, to clear the air surrounding the less-spoken condition.
First things first. Several women presume the discharge to be the result of vagina cleaning itself. However, clearing the confusion, the doctor stated, “It happens due to hormonal changes which will act on the reproductive organ. Vagina constantly secretes substances which alters itself in the case of physiological or hormonal differences.”
She also stated that discharge is common just before or after regular periods and in the middle of the cycle, it would be watery due to egg formation and is known as ovulation cascade.
“The presence of candida and commensal organisms inside vagina reacts to the physiological changes and causes curdy thread-like discharge and is common. However, it takes the upper hand if the body resistance is low. The condition can be worse among women who take birth control pills, are diabetic or on corticosteroids,” added Dr Jaishree.
In addition, the discharge is said to exhibit different properties based on the kind of infection.
She said, “When the infection occurs due to Monilia fungus, the substance would be whitish frothy and the other type is caused by bacterial vaginosis and the discharge can be greenish frothy with fish odour. In common, it passes from one partner to the other, hence treatment is given to both.”
She also stated that the frequency of white discharge varies according to the period cycle and usually it comes just before periods and is termed to be healthy. On the awareness front, she said, “A majority of women are well aware and come forward to seek treatment.”