Vaginal Odor

It is quite natural for the human body to emit odors. Vaginal odor is no exception, and it can be expected even from a normal, healthy vagina. However, pungent, foul odors that emanate from the vagina can not only be very embarrassing, they may indicate a potentially serious health problem.

 

The most common cause of vaginal odor is bacterial vaginosis. BV is caused by an imbalance of naturally occurring bacterial flora, which may be due to the use of antibiotics or a pH imbalance. BV results in a fishy-smelling odor that may be more obvious after sexual intercourse. Other symptoms of bacterial vaginosis include vaginal itching or irritation and a grayish-white vaginal discharge. Anemia (iron deficiency) is a strong predictor of bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women. BV can also be brought on by prolonged stress. Untreated bacterial vaginosis may cause serious complications, such as increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections, an increase in the development of pelvic inflammatory disease, as well as other complications for pregnant women.

Vaginal Yeast Infections (Candidiasis) also known as White

About 75% of women get at least one yeast infection during their lifetime. Some women have many yeast infections. Women of all ages can get yeast infections.

What causes yeast infections?

Yeast infections are usually caused by an overgrowth of a type of fungus called Candida, also known as yeast. Small amounts of yeast and other organisms are normally found in your vagina, as well as in your mouth and digestive tract. Yeast infections occur when the balance of organisms in your vagina is upset, and the amount of yeast in your vagina grows too much, causing an infection. Yeast infections are most likely to act up just before or just after your menstrual period. Some types of “yeast” infections are harder to treat and are caused by other species. Ask your health care provider (HCP) if you should be checked for these other types if you are not better.

This balance of organisms in your vagina can be changed by:


1. Antibiotics (for acne, throat, ear infections, or even other kinds of vaginal infections) because they can kill the normal bacteria in your vagina and let the yeast grow

2. Being overweight

3.Diabetes

4.Pregnancy

5.HIV infection

6.Steroids

7. Tight underwear made of material such as nylon or Lycra that traps moisture and heat, especially in the summer. (You should wear cotton underwear because it absorbs moisture better)


What are the signs/symptoms of a yeast infection?

The most common symptoms are itching and vaginal discharge. The discharge is often thick, white and, curd-like (almost like cottage cheese). The discharge will be odorless. Other signs are burning, redness, and irritation of the vaginal area. Severe yeast infections may cause swelling of the lips of the vagina. Sometimes, women have pain when the urine passes over the sore tissues.

Sexual intercourse may also be painful for women because of inflammation of the vagina.

Can yeast infections cause serious problems?

Yeast infections are not known to cause any serious health problems. However, the yeast infection itself can be very unpleasant, so you should get it diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.

How to Prevent Yeast Infection

You can lower your risk of getting a yeast infection by:

• Never using vaginal douche products
• Wearing cotton underwear and loose fitting pants
• Changing out of a wet bathing suit or workout clothes as soon as you can
• Taking antibiotics only when your health care provider feels you need them

 

By Jonathan Brew

The Importance Of Knowing Your Genotype

Genotype is the genetic makeup of an individual with reference to a trait or multiple traits. They are the collection of genes passed from parents to the children.

There are four genotypes in humans - AA, AS, SS and AC. AC genotype is not so common and popular unlike the other three. SS and AC are the abnormal genotypes or the sickle cells. The knowledge of genotype is important when choosing life partners. Intending couples should know both their own genotype as well as their partner's genotype at the early stage of their relationship before they are well rooted in love and emotions. Emotions and time spent in the relationship can cloud people’s judgment or decision to break up if they are not compatible, thus, giving birth to sickle cell children and subjecting themselves and their children to pain, torture and agony.

Possible Outcomes of Different Genetic Combination

AA + AA = AA, AA, AA, AA
AA + AS = AA, AS, AA, AS 
AA + SS = AS, AS, AS, AS
AA + AC = AA, AA, AA, AC
AS + AS = AA, AS, AS, SS
AS + SS = AS, SS, SS, SS
AS + AC = AA,  AC, AS,SS
SS + SS = SS, SS, SS, SS
AC + SS = AS, AS, SS, SS
AC + AC = AA, AC, AC, SS

People with the genotype AA are prone to malaria sickness at their early ages. Sickle cell arises when there is any blockage in the blood vessels which inhibits the flow of oxygen. When the red blood cell do not have the required oxygen, there will be changes in its original shape (disc shape) to a "Sickle-like" or "crescent-like shape", Thus, the name "sickle cell". Sickle cell patients experience severe pains in body parts that lack oxygen flow. Their bone marrows will fail to produce red blood cells and this result to anemia. To save this crisis, blood is usually transfused to them.

In terms of compatibility, someone with AA genotype can marry anybody. It is safe for someone with AS to marry someone with AA genotype. The combinations of AS and AS, AS and AC should not be risked. There is probability of having a SS. Although. Two sickle cells should not even have a relationship or get married. Individuals with the AA genotype should help you prevent genetic abnormalities by marrying the AS, AC and SS.  By this, we are hopeful to eradicate sickle cells in the world.

Sex: Learning Without Doing

When I was a little kid-6, 7, probably even 8 years old-sex was a mystery. I was a child with a big imagination and I used to think that a girl could get pregnant after kissing a boy.

Later, when I was 9, 10 and 11, I was enlightened by my friends, who told me sex was allowing a boy to stick his penis into your vagina.

Of course, with this information came the school rumors of little boys and girls having sex in the bushes, in the classroom, behind the building and wherever else they could think of.

Even though we thought sex was nasty and were obviously embarrassed by it (we made up a bunch of other names for it like "dogu dogu"), we also found it mysterious and interesting. We assumed it was one of the things adults did for fun, like kissing and drinking beer, but we wanted to know more.

I Wanted to Know More

I was living in Jamaica back then and, because of the grade I was in, I didn't get any sex education. The only grown-up person who used to talk to me about sex was my grandmother's stepdaughter. She would tell my cousin and me not to have sex and she would give us a little information about menstruation, but not enough to be much help.

When I had just turned 13, I came to New York to live with my grandmother. During my first two years here, she talked to me about boys and sex no more than two or three times. What she had to say was either confusing or negative, so I didn't gain much from our discussions.

What she was clear about was that I couldn't go to parties, date or have boyfriends. She explained that if I did those things, something could happen to me that I might later regret.

Body Image and Self Esteem

Does any of this sound familiar? "I'm too tall." "I'm too short." "I'm too skinny." "If only I were shorter/taller/had curly hair/straight hair/a smaller nose/longer legs, I'd be happy."
Are you putting yourself down? If so, you're not alone. As a teen, you're going through lots of changes in your body. And, as your body changes, so does your image of yourself. It's not always easy to like every part of your looks, but when you get stuck on the negatives it can really bring down your self-esteem.

What is Ovulation?

Many young girls and women are unaware that they ovulate. Ovulation occurs when an egg moves from the ovaries into the fallopian tubes and is ready for fertilization. It occurs midway in a woman's menstrual cycle, but the timing varies for each woman.

When an egg moves into the fallopian tubes, a sperm cell can fertilize the egg, which could then move into the uterus, or womb, and develop into a fetus.

During ovulation, the walls of the uterus also thicken to prepare for a fertilized egg, but if the egg is not fertilized, the uterus sheds that lining, causing the monthly bleeding of a menstrual period. Having a period does not always equal ovulation, though.

“The most misunderstood thing about ovulation is the idea that if you are menstruating, it means that you are ovulating; and that is indeed not the case at all,"

Abortion or Parenthood?

During my time in foster care, I have lived in several homes with teen parents. The most memorable teen mom was only 16 when she had her first child, and was getting ready to turn 18 when she had her second. The only people she could depend on were her social workers, and sometimes not even them. She had no family and the fathers of her children did very little to help her. She was very much alone, struggling to raise her kids.
I swore that I was going to be nothing like her. I was going to finish school and get a job before even considering having a child. That was when I was 14. I had never been in a relationship with a guy, so I figured that getting pregnant at an early age would not happen to me.

I Met a Boy

Shortly after my 14th birthday, I began going out with a boy for the first time. He was friends with some of my friends, and was older—17. We had an off and on relationship that didn't involve sex, at least not for a couple of years. Most people assume that being in a relationship as long as ours without sex would take a huge toll on the guy, so I kind of thought that if I didn't eventually give him some, he'd leave me. Soon after I turned 16, we said that we loved each other for the first time and decided to start a sexual relationship.

At first I didn't think that having sex was going to change our relationship, but after a while it did. I think because I lost my virginity to him, it brought us closer together, even though sex isn't all that it's cracked up to be. See, I let TV and movies influence my thoughts about sex. They make it seem like it's this wonderful thing, and that it's all glamorous. Sure, it's OK, but it's also very weird. It feels funny, the positions are funny and it even smells funny. I don't understand why people exaggerate about it so much.
Anyway, my boyfriend and I didn't really talk about it, but we ended up using condoms for birth control. Even though I had never taken any sex education classes at that point, we just had the common sense to know that protection was the best thing for both of us. So every time we'd have sex, we used a condom. Except for that one time.

Seriously, 'You’re Pregnant'

Summer started. Things were going well between my boyfriend and me. Then, as the summer continued, I began to notice some changes in my body. I thought it was because of stress, but decided to go to the doctor anyway. That's how I found out that I was three weeks pregnant. I didn't expect to hear that—my period was only a day late, so when the doctor told me the news, I started laughing. I thought she was joking. She gave me this look and said, "Seriously, you're pregnant." I still didn't believe it, not until she gave me some information about abortion and adoption. She told me to read it and come back in two weeks with a decision. I had to decide whether to keep the baby, have an abortion or have the baby and give it up for adoption. This would become the hardest two weeks of my life.
When I told my boyfriend I was pregnant, he was more shocked than I was. He asked me what I wanted to do, and for some strange reason I said I wanted to get an abortion, even though I wasn't really sure. It just seemed like the logical thing to say. My boyfriend didn't have any objections. He said I should think of my future, which was true, since most likely I would be the one raising the child.
Then, the next weekend I was watching TV when I turned to this show called Eclipse of Reason. It showed actual footage of a woman getting an abortion, and interviews of two women who said they were hurt mentally and physically from having abortions. By the end of the half-hour, my stomach was turning and I was in tears. The program led me to believe that if I went through with an abortion, I was a bad person. So my mind was set: I wasn't going to get an abortion. I felt as if I had made a big decision, but reality would soon wake me up.
I was looking through a bunch of papers that I got from the Internet and from my doctor about abortions, and the factual information I read there was surprising, and very different from the TV show, which I now think was created not to give an accurate account of abortion, but only to persuade women not to have them. The information from my doctor and the Internet reported that the mental and physical complications from abortion are extremely rare.

Not Ready to Be a Mom

Then I began thinking of the teen moms I knew, and especially those whose kids later ended up in foster homes without them. I realized that Eclipse of Reason showed women getting abortions, but it didn't show young women struggling to raise kids alone, with no money, no support and no job.
I began to think about all the things I wanted to do with my life that would be hard to do if I had a baby. I wouldn't be able to go to college full-time. If I found time to get a job, I wouldn't get to keep the money for myself. I would have to buy baby clothes, milk and diapers, and pay for a babysitter just to leave the house.
And having a kid at my age would not just be unfair to me, it would be unfair to the child, who would grow up without stability. He or she would be subjected to an unprepared mother and an environment where nothing is certain. The child would have to deal with the stress of having her mother struggle and do her damnedest just to keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. I suspected I would make a good mother someday, when I had a steady job and a roof over my head. I also knew that now wasn't that day.

Abortion, Adoption, or Parenthood?

But I still didn't want an abortion. The thought of it was scary, and I wondered if it was wrong. So I thought briefly about adoption, but didn't like the idea of carrying something for nine months and becoming bonded to it as it gets big, and then having to give it away. So instead of deciding what to do, I didn't decide. I went past my two week deadline to go to the doctor and to let them know what I wanted to do. Finally, I realized time was running out.
The day I decided to call Planned Parenthood for an abortion was the longest day of my life. I tried calling from the time I woke up until about 1 p.m., when I finally got through. I told them that I wanted to make an appointment. The woman on the other end asked for what, and for some reason the word "abortion" could not come out of my mouth. When I finally said it, she gave me a date to come in: the next day. I was hoping to have a couple of days to collect myself before I had the operation.
The next morning my foster mother and boyfriend went with me to the doctor. When I got there, I saw many women of all different ages, all waiting to have an abortion. One girl I met was 14 and was also having her first abortion. Another woman was 30 and already had two kids and had had two abortions before. We passed the time talking and watching TV.
When I finally made it into the operating room, I lay on the table. After that, all I remember is praying to God, asking Him to let me make it through OK. About 20 minutes later I woke up and started crying. Then I went home. All day, as I dealt with the aftermath of the abortion—mostly bleeding and cramps—I thought about my decision. I pictured myself with and without a baby. I thought about whether I was going to hell or not because of the abortion.

My Biggest Decision

To this day, almost a year later, I still think about what my life would have been like with a baby. For one, I probably would be raising it alone, because my boyfriend and I broke up, though we're still great friends. For another, I probably wouldn't be going away to college this fall. And though sometimes I still have mixed feelings about abortion, for the most part I'm glad I made the decision to have one.
Not too long ago I was looking through the TV guide and saw that show Eclipse of Reason coming on again. I thought about the message that show was trying to get across—that abortion was evil and that it would scar a woman for life if she had one. I think it's irresponsible to just say that abortion is bad without also showing how hard it is to raise a child before you're ready.
Yes, it's a bad idea to become pregnant when you aren't ready to be. And people should do everything they can to prevent unwanted pregnancies. But I think abortion only becomes bad when women see it as something as simple as brushing their teeth in the morning. If they say, "Oh well, I'm pregnant again, so I'll just get an abortion," they're using it as a form of birth control, and I think that's wrong. But once a woman is pregnant, she is the one who should decide what to do, because she is the one who will live with her decision. And believe me, making that decision is hard enough without people telling you what to do.
Not too long after I had the abortion, people found out. They made sure they expressed their opinions. Quite a few were angry with me. They had the "How could you do that?" attitude. A few others had the "You made the right decision, but…" attitude, and still others congratulated me and said they were surprised at how someone my age could make such a big decision. I do feel like I made a big decision. In some ways, it was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made.

All Too Real

Two young New Yorkers deal with the diagnosis


When Danielle was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1989, doctors gave her three years to live. Sean found out he was HIV-positive last year, and worried at first that he wouldn’t live to see his next birthday.

But Danielle, now 22, and Sean, 21, are both alive and well, and getting support from Health and Education Alternatives for Teens (HEAT), a community-based program run by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. The program provides medical and mental health services and case management to youth ages 13-24 who are living with or at high risk for HIV/AIDS.


We talked to them about what it means to live as a young person with the virus today, and what all teens should know about HIV.

What is Consent?

The writer of “The Power of No” said, “I’m not doing this, I don’t want to.” Jack may not have known exactly what she meant; that's when they should have had a meaningful conversation about consent. One way to know that you’re ready for sex is that you’re able to have that conversation before you’re in the heat of the moment. Here are some tips on how to do that from loveisrespect.org:

As important as consent is, we don’t talk about it enough. So it’s understandable if you’re a little unsure as to what consent is—and what it isn’t. You may have heard the idea that “no means no,” but this doesn’t really provide a complete picture of what consent is because it puts the responsibility on one person to resist or accept. It also makes consent about what a partner doesn’t want, instead of being able to openly express what they do want.

Well, How Does It Work?

Some people are worried that talking about consent will be awkward or that it will ruin the mood, which is far from true. If anything, the mood is much more positive when both partners are happy and can freely communicate what they want. First off, talk about what terms like “hooking up” or “going all the way” mean to each partner. Consider having these conversations during a time when you’re not being physically intimate.

If you are in the heat if the moment, here are some suggestions of things to say:
• Are you comfortable?
• Is this OK?
• Do you want to slow down?
• Do you want to go any further?

What Consent Looks Like:

• Communicating every step of the way. For example, during a hookup, ask if it’s OK to take your partner’s shirt off and don’t just assume that they are comfortable with it.
• Respecting that when they don’t say “no,” it doesn’t mean “yes.”
• Breaking away from gender “rules.” Girls are not the only ones who might want to take it slow. Also, it’s not a guy’s job to initiate the action (or anything else, really).

What Consent Does NOT Look Like:

• Assuming that dressing sexy, flirting, accepting a ride, accepting a drink etc. is in any way consenting to anything more.
• Saying yes (or saying nothing) while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Saying yes or giving into something because you feel too pressured or too afraid to say no.

Here are some red flags that indicate your partner doesn’t respect consent:

• They pressure or guilt you into doing things you may not want to do.
• They make you feel like you “owe” them—because you’re dating, or they gave you a gift, etc.
• They react negatively (with sadness, anger, or resentment) if you say “no” to something, or don’t immediately consent.
• They ignore your wishes, and don’t pay attention to nonverbal cues that could show you’re not consenting (pulling/pushing away).

Get Consent Every Time

In a healthy relationship, it’s important to discuss and respect each other’s boundaries consistently. It’s not OK to assume that once someone consents to an activity, it means they are consenting to it anytime in the future as well. Whether it’s the first time or the 100th time, a hookup, a committed relationship, or even marriage, nobody is ever obligated to give consent just because they have done so in the past. A person can decide to stop an activity at any time, even if they agreed to it earlier. Above all, everyone has a right to their own body and to feel comfortable with how they use it—no matter what has happened in the past.

Source: Youth communication

Sara Stratton, Senior Technical Advisor, Family Planning, Palladium
USA
I worked in an area of Central Florida that is really rural and reminded me a little bit of Africa in terms of landscape and temperature. And the housing is out of different [material], but it was similar [to Africa]. Some people were living in trailers with no water and not much sanitation. And there were really young moms. So that sort of audience left an impression on me.

I have two girls and I want them to have access to information and contraceptives so they can make decisions about their future. My mom also worked in family planning with the health department here in Durham County. My sister and I, [we] were able to do things because we had access to information and contraceptives. But these moms I would see in these trailers, they didn’t know about that and how that can be part of just taking care of yourself and thinking about what that means for your future.

[In Florida], we had a teen pregnancy prevention coalition, and I was able to get funding for it because so many young women were getting pregnant and having kids, but the adults in the community didn’t really want to believe that.
Photographer: Sarah V. Harlan
Interviewer: Sarah V. Harlan

 Source:  Family Planning Voices

Talk On Teenage Pregnancy at Moree, Central Region