Drop the douchebag, folks. Your vagina will thank you.
If you have a vagina, you have probably noticed that there are a lot of products on the market to allegedly help you care for it. Sure, some of them are super useful like menstrual supplies and lubricants but there are others that are just preying on insecurities you might have.
Actually, you probably wouldn’t have the insecurities if it wasn’t for the marketing. If you’re like me, you can go all day without worrying about your vagina. Then you’re sitting there, watching some tv, and boom! An ad trying to get you to buy a special vagina wash or some variant on douche.
If you want to be utterly horrified, you can delve into the annals of vagina advertising history and discover that Lysol was once considered a reasonable substance to insert into your vagina. Yes, Lysol. The household cleanser. Ads marketed it as a remedy for “neglect” that would increase “marriage happiness.” The subtext was that it would prevent pregnancy.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t. It was also super bad for vaginas and sometimes even killed people who used it as a douche.
You would think that in 2016 we all would have absorbed the wisdom that vaginas can take care of themselves and that all they really need is to be left alone (except for the vulva, which can be washed with mild soap). But no. No, the feminine hygiene industry is still trying to convince to to douche EVEN THOUGH DOUCHING IS BAD FOR US.
How bad? Well, we’ve known for a long time that douching can mess with the natural balance of bacteria in the vagina and lead to infections like bacterial vaginosis or pelvic imflammatory disease. Infections like that can make you very sick and even cause complications in pregnancy.
Now, a recent study shows a possible link between douching and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.
YOU DO NOT WANT OVARIAN CANCER.
The researchers behind the study are quick to say that the new data are extremely preliminary and may turn out not to be causal. However, since douching is already a bad idea, the possibility of it increasing cancer risk doesn't make it any more appealing.
Drop the douchebag, folks. Your vagina will thank you.
