TO DOUCHE OR NOT TO DOUCHE..... THAT IS THE QUESTION

The recent influx of vaginal douche products on the market with constant adverts both in the print and electronic media touting its ability to keep a woman clean and fresh is a cause for concern. A lot of unsuspecting women are being lured into using vaginal douche at the expense of their vaginas. One may ask, “What is vaginal douching?”
Vaginal douching is a process of rinsing or cleaning the vagina by forcing water or any another solution (usually antiseptic or vinegar) into the vaginal cavity to flush away vaginal discharge or other contents.
Vaginal douching is a centuries-old practice that was practiced in the believe that it kept a woman clean and also  as a form of birth control by rinsing the vagina right after sex to get rid of semen. It is still practiced today with more sophisticated equipments and solutions. To better understand the topic under discussion let us examine the female anatomy particularly the vagina briefly.

The vagina is a flexible tube-shaped organ that is the passageway between the uterus and the opening in the vulva. In view of the fact that during birth the baby travels from the uterus through the vagina, the vagina is also known as the birth canal. A woman's menstrual flow comes out of the uterus and through the vagina. When a man and a woman engage in vaginal intercourse, the penis is inserted into the vagina. A healthy, normally developed vagina is self-cleansing; the vagina is moistened by mucus from the cervix and a transudate that seeps out from the blood vessels of the vaginal wall. The vaginal fluid or secretion is highly acidic owing to the presence of lactic acid formed by the action of Döderlein’s bacilli on glycogen found in the squamous epithelium of the vaginal lining. The acid deters the growth of pathogenic bacteria.

Therefore the practice of douching where an antiseptic, water or vinegar is used to cleanse the vagina rather destroys the normal bacteria in the vagina and change the pH of the vagina thus encouraging growth of pathogens.
Given this realities one would wonder why some women douche but there are varied reasons why women douche. Most women douche to:
      Rinse away any remaining menstrual blood at the end of the monthly period.
      Rinse out semen following sexual intercourse to avoid pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
      Reduce vaginal odors.
 In addition, some women sometimes don’t feel they are clean unless they use vaginal douches regularly. Doctors occasionally recommend vaginal douching for the treatment of chronic yeast infections or chronic bacterial infections; however, douching for this purpose is done only under a doctor's supervision using the special solution provided.
So then, is douching healthy? Simply stated, NO!
Regular vaginal douching changes the delicate chemical balance of the vagina and can make a woman more susceptible to infections. Douching can also introduce new bacteria into the vagina which can spread up through the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes causing fertility problems. Researchers have found that women who douche regularly experience more vaginal irritations and infections such as bacterial vaginosis, and an increased number of sexually transmitted diseases. Douching as a means of reducing pregnancy is ineffective as the solution used in washing out the semen rather ends up pushing it further into the vagina which may result in pregnancy.

In addition, regular users of vaginal douches face a 73% greater risk of developing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) – a chronic condition that can lead to infertility, or even death, if left untreated (US Department of Health and Human Services). Bacterial vaginosis and pelvis inflammatory disease (PID) can have serious adverse affects on pregnancy including infections in the baby, labor problems, and preterm delivery. Furthermore, unclean douching equipment may also introduce undesirable foreign bodies into the vagina.
The only safe and healthy way to clean the vagina is to let the vagina clean itself.
So, to douche or not to douche, I would say not to douche.  The demerits of vaginal douching out-weigh the merits (if there are any) therefore every woman should treat her vagina like her jewel and not abuse it by practicing vaginal douching.