Alternative name : Vaginal irritation
One of the commonest women-specific complaints is vaginal discharge. Under normal healthy conditions, the vagina has some amount of secretion that helps keep the insides moist. At different times of the month, this secretion may be perceptible as a slight mucus discharge, or a white discharge. However, it is so little that it is not enough to stain the clothes or make one feel uncomfortable.
What are the Causes and Symptoms of Vaginal Discharge
Some increase in vaginal discharge takes place during excitement, sexual activity, masturbation, anxiety, in-between two periods, the day just before the period, in illness, or when one is in a rundown physical condition. Vaginal discharge is a problem if it increases so much in amount as to stain clothes daily, if it is purulent or bloodstained, or causes itching, soreness or a burning sensation in the area.
The vaginal epithelium is kept healthy by a natural commensal in the vaginal tract called doderlein bacillus. This keeps the pH acidic, which prevents infection from setting in. Washing oneself too often with medicated soaps and detergents changes the pH, making the vagina vulnerable to infection. Being ‘over clean’, with the excessive use of deodorants and chemically-treated compounds, is carrying a good thing too far. Fungal infections very easily take root under these conditions. However, there may also be mixed infection and some infection contacted from sexual partners.
Home Remedies For the Treatment of Vaginal Discharge
- Treat anemia or any other debilitating disorder in the body immediately.
- Eat healthy, nutritious food.
- Take care of personal hygiene.
- Crush an aloe leaf and extract two tablespoons of the juice. Have it thrice a day with honey for two weeks after the periods are over.
- Take a banana, slice it and add to it a tablespoon of fresh Indian gooseberry juice with a teaspoon of honey. Have this daily for a few days.
- Eat banana flowers cooked as a vegetable, or a tablespoon of the juice of the flowers with a tablespoon of palm candy for a few days.
- Wash and dry Indian gooseberry roots. Powder and store. Whenever there is a problem of menorrhagia or vaginal discharge, take a teaspoon of this powder, and boil it in a cup of water to make a decoction. Add sugar to taste and drink it on an empty stomach for 2-3 days.
- For fungal infections of the vagina, when the discharge is ‘curdy’ white, like cheesy precipitate, with burning and pain, along with the douche suggested earlier, eat a cupful of fresh yoghurt every day.
- Soak a tablespoon of crushed peepul-tree bark in half a liter of hot water at night. Next morning filter it and use as a douche.
- Make a vaginal douche by boiling half a tablespoon each of the dry, pounded bark of the fig and the banyan tree in a liter of water for five minutes. Let it cool to a bearable temperature and use it as a vaginal douche.
- Take a tablespoonful of the dried rind of pomegranate. Boil it in half a liter of water. Strain and use as a vaginal douche.
- Make a paste of ripe phyllanthus amarus leaves or fruit. Have two teaspoonful with a glass of buttermilk. If this is not available, normal ripe Indian gooseberry can be made into a chutney and had with food everyday. It is an extremely rich source of vitamin – C.
- Add a tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar, with honey to taste, to a glass of hot water. Drink it first thing in the morning.
Useful References