Over-the-counter treatment for bacterial vaginosis: does it work?

Over-the-counter treatment for bacterial vaginosis is widely available. It is also very expensive. From a personal standpoint, I found that some preparations helped soothe the vaginal area when it was irritated, but seemed to do little to help clear up the condition.

If you have a fishy-smelling vaginal odor, you most likely have bacterial vaginosis. This is an extremely common, yet distressing condition that many women find it difficult to get rid of. One of the problems is that many women do not fully understand the nature of bacterial vaginosis and very often some of the things they are doing in an attempt to get rid of it actually make it worse and prolong the outbreak.

Bacterial vaginosis is not an infection but an inflammation caused by an overgrowth of bacteria. Inside the vagina there are two types of bacteria, good and bad. Under normal circumstances, the “good” bacteria help control the “bad” bacteria and balance is maintained. If something happens to upset the balance, harmful bacteria can grow rapidly, causing symptoms such as itching, gray watery discharge, and the characteristic “fishy” odor. Ironically, washing too much can be one of the causes of bacterial vaginosis and this is often what women repeatedly do to get rid of the odour; in fact, they are making things worse!

Doctors regularly prescribe antibiotics. In reality, these can be even worse than over-the-counter bacterial vaginosis treatments because of the way they work. Antibiotics work by killing bacteria. Unfortunately, they do not discriminate between harmful and beneficial bacteria. This means that when taken, antibiotics kill both types. Once the course is over and bacteria start to repopulate the vagina, the bad bacteria grow rapidly and there are no good bacteria to kill them, so the whole cycle starts all over again.

This is why more than 70% of antibiotic users report a recurrence of bacterial vaginosis in just a few weeks.