Aa
Please help!
Hey I’m 13 and I have a fishy smell on my vagina and I’m really worried, I don’t wanna tell my dad as I live with him and I don’t want to go see a doctor if it does come to that cause I’m insecure and I will find it awkward. Anyone got any advice?
COMMUNITY LEADER
Anniebrooke gave good advice, to add, asking to see the doctor is a good thing to do and you can be in the room without a parent at 13. Just find your voice and ask for that. Your regular doctor probably can swab you and find out if you need antibiotics. When you have a really bad odor, it can be bacterial. Discharge is usually thin, greyish and watering. You can get it from things like being hot and sweating with damp underwear. the lack of air, moist conditions, etc. create an environment that is prime for bacterial growth.
You can try wearing cotton undies during the day and changing often and air drying by wearing no underwear at night. Also, try probiotics. You can take a supplement or they make a smoothie and yogurt that taste good. My son takes probiotics now and likes the smoothies. :>) This helps with ph.
Try not to be embarrassed. This is all part of taking care of ourselves. good luck
You can try wearing cotton undies during the day and changing often and air drying by wearing no underwear at night. Also, try probiotics. You can take a supplement or they make a smoothie and yogurt that taste good. My son takes probiotics now and likes the smoothies. :>) This helps with ph.
Try not to be embarrassed. This is all part of taking care of ourselves. good luck
COMMUNITY LEADER
Well, sweetheart, when you get a bit older and get regular gynecological exams, they *are* a little awkward. But you do get used to it.
If you are 13, I assume you get your periods? If the smell is noticeably bad and worse right after a period, you might have a bacterial issue called gardnerella or Bacterial Vaginosis. But it doesn't sound like it, women with BV always describe the smell as being quite bad, like dead-meat bad.
If the smell is just slightly fishy, it might be a simpler matter. It might be the normal smell in that area, especially if you haven't had a bath or shower in a couple of days. The vagina is a self-cleaning organ, and it drains out about a teaspoon of liquid every day to keep things nice inside. If that is all that's going on, put some mini-pads or panty liners on the grocery list, and wear one every day. Tear it off and toss it whenever you go to the loo. That will keep the salts and bacteria from urine from blending with your natural secretions from the vagina and making a fishy smell.
You could also be getting a smell from sweat. Where the top of the thighs meets the vulva area, it's pretty closely packed in clothing and gets sweaty, and our evolution has also added some sweat glands there that seem to put out a particularly noticeable level of fats or salts in the sweat that are more strong smelling than one would find, say, on the forehead or the arm. If you are keeping yourself clean and as dry as possible in the area and bathing every day and still find this smell driving you crazy, you might try something mild on the skin up there (not the vulva but on the upper inside skin of the thighs) that would do a little extra to keep it from getting a bacterial growth. I used to use (this is funny and seems odd, but it did work) the old-fashioned kind of Listerine on a cotton ball, and swab my upper inside thighs with it. The old-fashioned stuff is full of things like menthol and eucalyptus oil, and it's kind of stinky but not horrible and not full of fake perfumes, and has no undesirable chemicals. Those oils seem to cut the oils or salts on the skin in that area.
Finally, if you are also getting some white discharge that looks like cottage cheese, that would be a yeast infection. Those are pretty easy to treat with over-the-counter products. But again, if you had one, I think you would have described it as more than just a fishy smell.
So long and short of it -- I would say you probably are just dealing with the natural cleansing of the vagina. But if you think more is going on, try the special washing of the area and the upper thighs. But if that is not what you think it is and you think it's worse, check into possible yeast infections or B.V.
And finally, awkward though it is to go to an ob/gyn and have a pelvic exam, this is something for you to start doing by probably age 15 or 16. Nobody loves these exams, but if you ask for a woman doctor, you should be able to get through it without mortification. And they are important.
Take care, and don't be distressed, being a woman is a super great thing.
If you are 13, I assume you get your periods? If the smell is noticeably bad and worse right after a period, you might have a bacterial issue called gardnerella or Bacterial Vaginosis. But it doesn't sound like it, women with BV always describe the smell as being quite bad, like dead-meat bad.
If the smell is just slightly fishy, it might be a simpler matter. It might be the normal smell in that area, especially if you haven't had a bath or shower in a couple of days. The vagina is a self-cleaning organ, and it drains out about a teaspoon of liquid every day to keep things nice inside. If that is all that's going on, put some mini-pads or panty liners on the grocery list, and wear one every day. Tear it off and toss it whenever you go to the loo. That will keep the salts and bacteria from urine from blending with your natural secretions from the vagina and making a fishy smell.
You could also be getting a smell from sweat. Where the top of the thighs meets the vulva area, it's pretty closely packed in clothing and gets sweaty, and our evolution has also added some sweat glands there that seem to put out a particularly noticeable level of fats or salts in the sweat that are more strong smelling than one would find, say, on the forehead or the arm. If you are keeping yourself clean and as dry as possible in the area and bathing every day and still find this smell driving you crazy, you might try something mild on the skin up there (not the vulva but on the upper inside skin of the thighs) that would do a little extra to keep it from getting a bacterial growth. I used to use (this is funny and seems odd, but it did work) the old-fashioned kind of Listerine on a cotton ball, and swab my upper inside thighs with it. The old-fashioned stuff is full of things like menthol and eucalyptus oil, and it's kind of stinky but not horrible and not full of fake perfumes, and has no undesirable chemicals. Those oils seem to cut the oils or salts on the skin in that area.
Finally, if you are also getting some white discharge that looks like cottage cheese, that would be a yeast infection. Those are pretty easy to treat with over-the-counter products. But again, if you had one, I think you would have described it as more than just a fishy smell.
So long and short of it -- I would say you probably are just dealing with the natural cleansing of the vagina. But if you think more is going on, try the special washing of the area and the upper thighs. But if that is not what you think it is and you think it's worse, check into possible yeast infections or B.V.
And finally, awkward though it is to go to an ob/gyn and have a pelvic exam, this is something for you to start doing by probably age 15 or 16. Nobody loves these exams, but if you ask for a woman doctor, you should be able to get through it without mortification. And they are important.
Take care, and don't be distressed, being a woman is a super great thing.
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