What is the Definition of Bacterial Vaginosis

Bacterial Vaginosis, or more generally called BV is one of the many types of vaginal infections that affects women in today's world. I'm sure you have heard of bacterial vaginitis, vaginal bacteriosis or vaginosis. In fact, they all refer to bacterial vaginosis, and they are all the same.

Before I confuse you even more with other names related to BV, I want make sure you are already aware of the other terms that are used to address BV, as mentioned above. I know it's confusing at times, but hey, let's get it right for now.

If you have searched around the Internet, you will realise that several other terms like vaginal yeast infection, candidiasis or trichomoniasis are somehow, in a way or another , are related to bacterial vaginosis, as seen on some websites.

Let's put things right. These are not bacterial vaginosis.

While they are also a type of infection, they are not caused by bacterias. If in any case you are suffering from these, you need to be treated differently.

There is nothing to worry about being infected by bacterial vaginosis, only as far as your life is concerned. BV does not threaten your life. However, it would cause distruption in your daily life, most likely causing mental and emotional stress to you. So, if you think you are infected by BV, you should consult a doctor or physician immediately, and start learning about what BV is all about. The easiest and fastest way to do thing is to do a Google search on the term, Bacterial Vaginosis.

It is absolutely vital that you get the right treatments from early on to prevent complicating the infection which will then take longer to go away.

The main reason why many women suffer from BV is because the normal balance of bacterias inside the vagina is distrupted. It can be due to a lot of reasons and it also varies between each individual. The common causes of bacterial vaginosis are due to hormon changes in the body, menopause, sickness, stress, pregnancy and also unbalanced diet.

In some cases, even a change of soap brands used for bath can lead to BV.

Do you know why that happens?

The vaginal system is a very sensitive and complex ecosystem with many microorganisms living inside it. All these microorganism (lots of them) form a very complex relationship between each other.

To put things simple, there are 2 types of bacterias living in the vaginal ecosystem. There are good bacterias (lactobacilli) and there are bad bacterias (anaerobes). Lactobacilli forms a delicate balance with the bad bacterias. The main purpose of Lactobacilli is to prevent any Anaerobes to multiply above it's normal level, therefore keeping the vagina healthy.

A healthy vagina would must be made up of a balance between lactobacilli and anaerobes with an acidic environment of about 3.8 to 4.5 pH.

If in certain circumstances, there are more anaerobes than lactobacilli, the balance of the vaginal ecosystem is distrupted. Chances of you getting bacterial vaginosis increases.