Most women thought that the most common vaginal infection is yeast infection. The fact is, bacterial vaginosis (BV) infection occurs more frequently than yeast infection among women of reproductive age.

In the US, BV occurs in about 10-64% of the general women population at any given time, and 16% of women during pregnancy. Medical scientists are still trying to determine the exact bacterial vaginosis causes. What is known so far is that certain factors involved in maintaining vaginal health have changed.

In BV, the delicate vaginal flora balance between the naturally occurring good and bad bacteria is disrupted – the population of good bacteria, lactobacilli, is outnumbered by a range of bad anaerobic bacteria. This is one of the reasons that causes BV hard to diagnose and to eradicate permanently. However, these days more and more women successfully get rid of BV with natural bacterial vaginosis cures.

Before proceed to understand the risk factors and causes of bacterial vaginosis, it’s important to separate the common myths from the facts about BV infection. First and foremost, you must know that you do not get BV through:

* Sitting on toilet seats or chairs.

* Beddings – mattresses or linens you sleep on.

* Swimming pools.

* Coming in contact with things around you.

So what are some of the things that can lead to bacterial vaginosis?

Identified bacterial vaginosis causes and risk factors include:

1. Sexual activity

While BV is not thought as a form of sexually transmitted disease, medical studies observed a relationship between BV and sex activity. Nevertheless, it is still uncertain as to how sex can cause a change in the vaginal flora balance.

While bacterial vaginosis occurs in almost all women who are sexually active, rarely it also happens in females who haven’t had sex before. The BV-causing germs have also been found in teenage boys and girls who are still virgins. So far, sexual activity is the strongest contributing factor of BV.

Medical observations so far are that:

* The rates of BV goes up when the number of sexual partners increases.

* BV could be related to having a new sexual partner.

* The male partner(s) of women with BV may carry the same bacteria in their urinary tract, but the male does not experience any symptom of BV.

* Having sex without using a condom may raise the risk of BV infection.

2. Vaginal douching

Medical research have found that vaginal douching is a contributing factor to bacterial vaginosis because it upsets the balance of the vaginal flora. It was hypothesized that douching causes either an imbalance to the vaginal flora or stimulates inflammation as a result of the physical or chemical irritation from douching. This will then make the woman more vulnerable to BV infection. The majority of douche products on the market contain mainly acetic acid and fragrance, but some also contain surfactant detergents.

Surfactant detergents kill bacteria by breaking their cell structure. At the same time, it also washes away important antibacterial elements on the vaginal cell membranes, leading to irritation of the vaginal wall lining and increasing the risk of infection.

3. Other recognized BV causes include cigarette smoking, use of intrauterine device (IUD) for birth control, and stress.


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