Library · Biological system
Vaginal microbiome
Make it clearer
The vagina is not an empty space. An entire population of bacteria lives inside, and microbiome is the name given to that whole community. During the reproductive years, the stretch of life in which pregnancy is possible, most of those bacteria make lactic acid, the same acid behind the sourness of yogurt.
That acid keeps the vagina on the acidic side of the pH scale, and staying there helps it defend itself: the local flora, meaning the bacteria that belong there, is held in balance, and other bacteria are kept from multiplying out of control. If that balance gets upset, by douching for instance, a practice that rinses out the vagina, the defenses can grow weaker, and both the pH and the makeup of the flora shift as a result. In bacterial vaginosis that environment is no longer acidic: the pH has shifted to the alkaline side, alkaline being the opposite of acidic, and different bacteria, Gardnerella and Mycoplasma, now predominate.
In brief
The vaginal microbiome is the population of bacteria living in the vagina; during the reproductive years, lactic-acid-producing bacteria predominate.
Those bacteria are why normal vaginal pH is acidic, and that pH helps maintain the local flora and helps protect against bacterial overgrowth.
Disrupting that microbiome, by douching for instance, can weaken the vagina's defenses and shift the flora and the pH; in bacterial vaginosis the pH is alkaline and Gardnerella and Mycoplasma predominate.
Sources (1)
- NCBI Bookshelf / StatPearlsPhysiology, Vaginal Structure and Function
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated