Sex. Yep, I said it. While having it is something that billions of people do every day, it may be changing the vaginal microbiome. According to Janneke van de Wijgert at the University of Liverpool, UK, her research has found a link between unprotected sex and imbalanced vaginal bacteria and that has been linked to an increased risk of contracting an STD, UTI’s, premature birth or developing pelvic inflammatory disease.

Healthy vaginas tend to be dominated by only one type of bacteria. So, to discover whether or not sexual activities could shape the vaginal microbiome and, therefore, women’s health (because of the additional bacteria), Lenka Vodstrcil at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in Australia and her colleagues found 52 volunteers and tracked the bacteria living in their vaginas.

From the article:

“Each woman was asked to swab their vaginas every three months for a year, and to keep a record of any sexual activities. The women were all young students, and 19 had not yet experienced penetrative sex at the start of the study. “It was a very diverse group.”

The volunteers were also asked to record the type of sex they had over the course of that year and whether they used condoms. Vodstrcil’s team compared this record with the types of bacteria collected on each swab.”

The team found that women who had unprotected penile-vaginal sex were more likely to have vaginal microbiomes dominated by Gardnerella vaginalis and Lactobacillus iners, both of which have been linked to bacterial vaginosis. The team’s discovery also suggests that in addition to STDs like chlamydia, non-pathogenic bacteria are sexually transmitted too.

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Researchers are trying to develop probiotics to help restore a healthy community of vaginal bacteria. But before that happens, there are ways you can protect your vagina’s microbiome. Probably the most important thing you can do for your health is to urinate immediately after sex. That alone helps out a lot. You can also encourage your partner to practice penile hygiene. The area under the foreskin is heaven for bacterial so keeping that area clean could minimize the spreading of bacteria during sex.

But don’t stop having penile-vaginal sex, “Van de Wijgert thinks that a woman’s vaginal microbiome probably adapts to the bacteria present on the penis of a long-term partner.” She says, “The risk lies in having sex with a new partner, which is a microbial assault on the vagina.”

 

Source: New Scientist