The Use Of Petroleum Jelly Can Lead To Bacterial Infection

The Use Of Petroleum Jelly Can Lead To Bacterial Infection.
Women who use petroleum jelly vaginally may put themselves at gamble of a plain infection called bacterial vaginosis, a flat muse about suggests. Prior studies have linked douching to unfriendly effects, including bacterial vaginosis, and an increased hazard of sexually transmitted diseases and pelvic mutinous disease resimleri. But little research has been conducted on the possible possessions of other products some women use vaginally, said Joelle Brown, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the original study.

She and her colleagues found that of 141 Los Angeles women they studied, half said they'd cast-off some species of over-the-counter offshoot vaginally in the past month, including sexual lubricants, petroleum jelly and child oil. Almost as many, 45 percent, reported douching. When the researchers tested the women for infections, they found that those who'd employed petroleum jelly in the since month were more than twice as right as non-users to have bacterial vaginosis.

Bacterial vaginosis occurs when the natural balance between "good" and "bad" bacteria in the vagina is disrupted. The symptoms involve discharge, pain, itching or passionate - but most women have no symptoms, and the infection all things considered causes no long-term problems. Still, bacterial vaginosis can alter women more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

It also once in a while leads to pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause infertility. The unusual findings, reported in the April issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, do not show that petroleum jelly straight increased women's risk of bacterial vaginosis. But it's possible, said Dr Sten Vermund, head of the Institute for Global Health at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

Petroleum jelly might speak for the crop of bad bacteria because of its "alkaline properties," explained Vermund, who was not active in the study. "An acidic vaginal circumstances is what protects women from colonization from peculiar organisms," Vermund said. He noted that many studies have now linked douching to an increased endanger of vaginal infections. And that may be because the modus operandi "disrupts the natural vaginal ecology," Vermund said.