100 popular science knowledge about gynecological health

90% of gynecological discomforts do not require excessive anxiety, and 70% of daily gynecological problems can be completely avoided by adjusting living habits. Indiscriminate use of medicines, indiscriminate flushing, and concealment of illnesses are the core reasons for severe cases.

I just met a 22-year-old girl in the clinic last week. I saved up half a month’s salary to buy an internet celebrity’s private parts whitening lotion. I rinsed it for 10 days in a row. I was so itchy that I couldn’t sit still and came to register. It was found that the vaginal flora was imbalanced. It was supposed to be solved by flushing the vulva with warm water every day. Not to mention, I spent thousands. The mucous membrane was broken and it hurt for almost a week before it healed. My nose turned red from crying. I thought I had a sexually transmitted disease after searching Baidu. It’s really not necessary. Let’s first explain the pitfalls that are easiest to step on.

Speaking of abnormal leucorrhea, many people panic when they see yellow on their underwear and want to take medicine and antibiotics right away. In fact, the academic community itself has different ideas for dealing with this problem: Western medicine will usually first look at whether there are accompanying symptoms - if there is only yellowing, no itching, odor, or tofu-like changes, it is most likely that the patient ate spicy hot pot the day before, stayed up late at night, or If you drink less water, change your underwear frequently and drink more warm water, you will be able to recover on your own in two days. If you feel uncomfortable, then check for leucorrhea and use regular symptomatic medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine will generally judge it to be damp and heat, and will let you adjust your diet and stay up less late, and will not prescribe strong medicine for you. I followed up a girl who worked in Internet operations. Every time she stayed up for three or four days in a row for a big project, her leucorrhea would turn yellow. After three tests, her leucorrhea was found to be normal. After the project was over, she took a week off and recovered without taking any medicine.

Oh, by the way, let’s talk about the choice of underwear. Don’t believe in the IQ tax of antibacterial or antibacterial underwear. Pure cotton and loose ones are the best. Try to expose them to the sun after washing. If you don’t see the sun for a week during the rainy season, use a hair dryer to heat them. It is better to wear underwear if the wind blows for two minutes longer than wearing damp and dry underwear. I have seen many patients with relapse of fungal vaginitis (also known as vulvovaginal candidiasis in clinical terms), which were all caused by wearing underwear that was not dry on rainy days.

Back to the controversy over private parts cleaning, there are indeed two views: one believes that there is no need to use any lotion on a daily basis, and warm water is enough to rinse the vulva; the other believes that if there is a lot of secretion before and after menstruation or after exercise, it is okay to clean the vulva with a weakly acidic and mild lotion with a pH value that matches the private part environment - but the consensus between the two sides is very unified: vaginal lavage must not be done Internally, the so-called "detoxification" and "shrinkage" of any lotion or gel are all nonsense. Previously, a 40-year-old aunt bought more than 3,000 detoxifying gels from a health class and stuffed them for a week. When she came, the cervical mucosa was corroded and bleeding. She thought she had cervical cancer, so she cried and was hospitalized. The final pathological results showed that she had mucosal damage. It was a false alarm, but she was punished.

After talking about daily care, let’s talk about menstruation that needs to be reported every month. This is also the most frequently asked question in the clinic. Many girls say that their low menstrual flow is due to premature ovarian failure. In fact, there is no unified standard for this: the normal value in Western medicine is 20-80ml, which is roughly the amount that soaks 2-8 ordinary sanitary napkins. As long as you keep this amount, hormones will If there is no problem in the six items, there is no need to supplement estrogen at all; if your amount was normal before, but it suddenly decreases and is accompanied by dysmenorrhea and cold hands and feet, traditional Chinese medicine will generally recommend that you use some menstrual-warming dietary prescriptions or moxibustion, and will not just ask you to take hormone drugs. There was a girl who went on a diet to lose weight in order to wear a small-size skirt. She lost 15 kilograms in three months. Her menstrual flow was so light that she only used panty liners. Later, I asked her to eat well first. After she gained 6 kilograms in weight, the amount came back on her own in the second month. It is more effective than any menstrual medication.

Oh, by the way, there is also HPV infection, which everyone has heard about in recent years. I have seen too many girls sit in the clinic crying after being tested positive, thinking that they are about to get cervical cancer. Let me give you some reassurance: 90% of HPV infections are transient and can turn negative naturally within 2 years relying on one’s own immunity. Nowadays, when there are no lesions in low-risk HPV and TCT examinations, the academic circles also have different approaches: some doctors will prescribe interferon to help regulate immunity, while others believe that interferon has very limited effect. Sleeping well, taking time to exercise three times a week, and eating more high-protein foods are more effective than any other medicine. Among the patients I have followed up on myself, those who stayed up until two or three o'clock every day generally took more than a year and a half to become negative. Those who adjusted their schedules and ran three times a week mostly became negative in half a year. The difference is really big.

There is another little question that many people are embarrassed to ask. Do girls need to urinate after having sex? This is really necessary. Girls’ urethra is naturally short and close to the vaginal opening. It is easy to bring bacteria to the urethral opening during sex. Most of the bacteria can be flushed out once urinating, which can reduce the probability of urinary tract infection by 80%. Don’t bother to go to the bathroom. It is always more comfortable than frequent urination, painful urination and blood in the urine.

Many people think that if you don’t have sex, you won’t get gynecological problems. This is really a misunderstanding. I once met a 16-year-old high school student who wore tight jeans every day and only changed 2 sanitary napkins a day because of the trouble during menstruation. She also got fungal vaginitis. Gynecological problems have never been an "exclusive disease" for married women. Don't feel embarrassed to go to a gynecologist because you don't have a sex life. If you really feel uncomfortable and carry it, it will delay your body.

Today this is the first of 100 popular science articles. They are all pitfalls that people are most likely to fall into in my more than ten years of practice. Let’s talk slowly later, from irregular menstruation to pregnancy preparation precautions, from HPV vaccines to postpartum repairs. We will explain the issues you are concerned about one by one. If you have anything you want to ask, you can leave a comment and I will try my best to explain it to you.