Breaststroking STD That's Not Herpes

Trichomonas

Do you occasionally itch down there? Not every itch has to be a disease of course! But, there may be a common parasite breaststroking around in your vagina. This parasite is called Trichomonas vaginalis, or just the nickname “trich” to the initiated into the logo of those of us in the medical ‘know.’ It has four short front arms (flagella, if you must know) and a 5th appendage that is more tail than leg. The tail propels it through the marsh of the vaginal moisture and the arms sort of flail around in fairly jerky movements that wouldn’t be considered good technique in any pool. But then they are fairly easy to recognize when your gynecologist peers into a microscope onto a saline flooded drop of this moisture.

Do we recommend scratching and bearing it? Resoundingly no, and for the rest of you who carry trich and are asymptomatic, you need treatment too. Untreated, yes, it probably will go away; but spontaneous clearance can take 5 years! While often asymptomatic, it is no less contagious than when symptomatic. Sex when bleeding? It is not ever prohibited to have sex when you bleed, but interestingly you can catch it more easily on your period as the iron in the menstrual blood makes trich more easily attach to the vaginal wall which is the initial onslaught of attack. And all these critters need is the vaginal wall to attach, so after a hysterectomy it is much more difficult to get the GC and CT infections formally known by lots of colorful explicative such as the Clap, and after a hysterectomy you can still catch the critters: there is no reduced risk to getting trich after the uterus has been removed. It is generally very treatable, although a few of the trich species have become resistant to the

While always regarded as more of an annoyance than a serious disease, there is new evidence to the contrary. Not only do women have an easier time picking up STDs like herpes (HSV), HIV, and HPV (Human Papilloma Virus), they have a harder time clearing organisms the immune system may often be able to resolve. For those who don’t clear the HPV virus they are more likely to have precancerous changes of the cervix. At best estimate trich can be responsible for just a minute number of cervical cancer cases each year, and probably only a co-factor if this data is even accurate.

And what about odor, and more odor? Even if you've been cleared of any prior infection, some just persist in having an odor without any more breaststrokers swimming around in the vagina.
Apparently your genetics can factor into this odor problem and if you have the sort of biochemistry that makes you unable to metabolize this stuff called trimethylaminine and concentrations build up and even spill into your urine causing: trimethylaminuria, or cause the stuff to pour out of your sweat glands. So some women may get odor without infection, or have worse odor with even mild infections, or just due to normal fluctuations in the bacteria counts. And your diet provides the precursors that your body makes into this odorous compounds. Reducing dietary precursors, like taking the antibiotic orally might help those women get rid of their odor although clearing the infection works just as well with the antibiotic vaginal creams.