Vaginal Dryness – Overview

Transcript

Vaginal dryness is a medical condition that affects many women. What women will notice is irritation, itching, burning pain during intercourse, lack of discharge, the healthy white milky discharge that is normal for a reproductive age woman. Why vaginal dryness occurs is most common in perimenopausal and menopausal women due to a decline in estrogen levels. When estrogen levels decline, it changes the epithelial lining of the vagina. It becomes thinner and shiny and more fryable when that occurs. Obviously it becomes more irritated and painful during intercourse. The other thing that happens when estrogen levels decline and there’s thinning of the vaginal epithelium, the pH of the vagina changes, it becomes more alkaline and less acidic. When it becomes more alkaline, then that predisposes the woman to urinary tract infections, bacterial infections, yeast infections. So it’s really important to optimize vaginal health. And the way that we optimize vaginal health is maintaining our vaginal lubricity and vaginal lubrication. And then the way that we maintain, one of the main ways that we maintain vaginal lubrication is through hormone balance.