“Not So Fresh” Aroma 

Dear Doctors: This is really embarrassing, but sometimes I don't think I smell too fresh...down there. I take regular showers and keep myself clean, but still there's that...“fishy” aroma. Can you help me?

Dr. Shannon Klingman:  I get this question a lot. This is particularly common in three groups: menstruating girls-especially when they use pads instead of tampons, women who leak urine when they cough, sneeze or laugh and women who have unprotected sex. What's happening is they're putting a basic fluid down there. And when it contacts the "perirectal organisms"-you know, the bacteria around your bottom-it releases a fishy odor.

Dr. Wesley Grootwassink:  There are many kinds of bacteria down there. It's like a Wild Kingdom. And each bacteria's competing to make the environment more hospitable for itself. And when fluids, like semen, raise the pH, that makes the area more favorable for the less desirable, odor-creating bacteria.

SK: So it's not because they're not clean or have an infection. In fact, the odor often times isn't even coming from the vagina.

WG:  It actually comes from the perineum. The area around the vagina and rectum.

SK:  The dukey.

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