Causes of Vaginal Discharge and Yeast infections

A healthy vaginal discharge is transparent or white and does not smell so filthy. It might change at adolescence, gestation and menopause, and there is an archetypal pattern to its thickness but there must be no blood in the discharge between menstrual cycles and no bleeding linked with sexual intercourse.

Yeast infections usually aren't wedged from a sex partner. You may be more probable to get a yeast infection if you use antibiotics, are pregnant, have diabetes, or stay hot and sweaty for long periods. Some women get common yeast infection for no obvious reason. Yeast infections aren't harmful, but they can be painful and itchy. Yeast infections are usually treated a cream that you put into your vagina with a special plunger or a pill call a suppository that you insert into your vagina

Vaginal discharge is known to be a symptom of a few different types of vaginal infections. Yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, and trichomoniasis are the vaginal infections that you will would like your doctor to test you for.

Causes of Vaginal Discharge: -

Non-infective: -

• Cervical polyps and ectopy
• Foreign bodies
• Erosive lichen planus
• Physiological
• Genital tract malignancy
• Fistulae
• Vulval dermatitis

Non-sexually transmitted infection: -

• Candida infections; caused by an an overgrowth of Candida albicans
• Bacterial vaginosis; not a sexually transmitted infection, it is most commonly seen in sexually active women who have a concurrent sexually transmitted disease

Sexually transmitted infection: -

• Neisseria gonorrhoeae
• Chlamydia trachomatis•
• Trichomonas vaginalis; particularly common in young women attending the genito-urinary medicine clinic and is frequently found in association with N.gonorrhoeae infection

Bacterial Vaginosis: -

Cause: - Bacterial vaginosis has polymicrobial aetiology. Organisms involved in the aetiology of bacterial vaginosis include anaerobes Mobiluncus sp. and Prevotella sp., Gardnerella vaginalis, and Mycoplasma hominis

Main symptoms: - Symptoms of bacterial vaginosis are vaginal discharge and odor, although 50% to 75% of women with the condition experience no symptoms. Vaginal discharge with fishy odor that increases after unprotected sexual intercourse and with menstruation.

Main methods of diagnosis: - Amsel's diagnostic criteria (three out of four of these criteria need to be present to diagnose bacterial vaginosis):

• Vaginal pH 4.5
• Homogeneous grey vaginal discharge
• 10% potassium hydroxide produces fishy odour "whiff test"
• Clue cells present on wet mount
• Nugent's diagnostic criteria