On the "red light day", women often have to face many unpleasant problems such as cramps, abdominal pain, bad odor from menstruation, etc. Smelling menstruation is not an unusual problem, however You need to be very careful if your period has a severe odor. Where does body odor during red light days come from? How to reduce body odor these days? APi 's article below will help you learn about the causes and solutions for you
1. Causes of body odor during menstruation
Increased secretion of the hormone estrogen
When the menstrual cycle comes, a woman's body will have huge changes and this is the cause of body odor during red periods. On the "red light day", the hormone secretion mechanism changes significantly. Not only that, girls' psychology and emotions will also be unstable.
Specifically, when menstruation comes, the body will secrete a lot of estrogen hormone, especially in the period before menstruation begins. The increase in estrogen secretion will also promote sweat glands, sebaceous glands... to become more active. As a result, on these days the body will secrete more sweat and sebum. This is one of the causes of body odor during menstruation.
Menstruation has a foul odor
Menstruation is a sticky mixture of blood, vaginal cells and excreted uterine lining tissue. Menstruation contains fresh blood, so it is normal to have a slight rust-like smell.
Besides, after each change of sanitary napkin, you will also notice that your period has a slight odor. The reason is because menstruation has been eliminated from the body and stored in sanitary napkins for many hours.
In essence, the odor you notice every time you change your sanitary napkin comes from bacterial activity. When menstruation remains in the sanitary napkin for more than 6 hours or overnight, the red blood cells will gradually decompose and bacteria will use it as an environment to multiply.
In addition, using sanitary napkins is also a cause of menstrual odor. When you use sanitary napkins, the air circulation path from outside to the genital area will be blocked. Therefore, the environment in underwear will become more stuffy, humid and hotter, creating favorable conditions for bacteria to grow and cause body odor during menstruation.
Some people think that they can use tampons (sanitary napkins in stick form) to overcome this problem. Although it can partly reduce odors, tampons do not have antibacterial effects. Therefore, when you take out the tampon, you will still notice a bad smell.
2. Tips to reduce body odor during menstruation for women
Many women are always worried that having a foul-smelling menstrual period will be easily detected by those around them. In fact, this can only happen when you are facing some health problems that cause your period to have a severe odor.
Usually, menstruation only has a mild odor and will not be easily detected by those around you. Therefore, if you maintain proper hygiene in your private area during "red light days", you will not need to worry about this issue. Here are some tips to help women eliminate body odor during "red light days".
Change sanitary napkins regularly
During the first 3 days of the menstrual cycle, the amount of menstrual blood released is the largest. Therefore, if you do not pay attention to changing sanitary napkins regularly, bacteria will grow at an extremely fast speed, leading to bad odor and vaginal infection.
To avoid the above situation, you should change sanitary napkins every 3-5 hours to help keep the private area clean, reduce odors from menstruation and reduce the risk of infection.
In the following days, when menstrual flow reduces, if you use sanitary napkins or tampons, you need to change them after 4 - 8 hours. If you use menstrual cups, you need to change them after 8 - 12 hours.
However, that is only theoretical advice, the time to change sanitary napkins needs to be flexibly adjusted based on menstrual flow, weather and your plans for the day. Be sure to change before the tampon is full to avoid menstrual bleeding on your clothes.
Besides, when changing sanitary napkins, you need to note the following things:
- Wash your hands before and after changing sanitary napkins, tampons or menstrual cups to avoid spreading bacteria.
- Use paper to wrap used sanitary napkins or tampins thoroughly before throwing them in the trash.
- If you use a menstrual cup, you need to clean and store it after each use according to the manufacturer's instructions.
In addition, you only need to use one sanitary pad overnight, except in cases where you sleep for more than 12 hours or experience menorrhagia.
Do not use sanitary napkins containing fragrance
You may think that sanitary napkins containing fragrance will "overcome" the odors from menstruation and private areas during "red light days". However, tampons containing fragrance are the cause of pH imbalance in the vaginal environment.
pH imbalance will create favorable conditions for yeast or bacteria to multiply at a rapid rate, causing inflammation and odor. Therefore, you should only use sanitary napkins that have good absorbency and do not contain fragrance.
Do not use paper containing alcohol or fragrance to clean private areas
Some girls have the habit of using wet towels to clean their private areas because they think that wet towels are clean and when used, they feel cool and refreshing. However, you don't know that wet wipes contain alcohol or fragrance and when used can unbalance the pH environment in the private area.
Besides, the cleaning and antibacterial ability of wet wipes also accidentally eliminates beneficial bacteria. An imbalance in the bacterial system also increases the rate of vaginal infections, causing an "unpleasant" odor in the private area.
Remove hair from private areas
During the "shedding" days, menstruation and sweat may stick to the hair in the private area and cause odor. Therefore, you should "clean up" the hair in the private area to reduce the odor.
Note that you only need to trim a little, not "clean it up", because the skin in the private area is very sensitive and easily irritated, especially on menstruation days.
Clean private areas regularly and properly
When you're in your menstrual period, you should not use intimate perfumes because they contain fragrance and will unbalance the pH environment. Another thing to note is that you should not use soap to clean or douche to avoid damaging the private area. To reduce odor, you just need to wash thoroughly and use intimate area cleaning solution.
Use appropriate underwear
On "red light days", use suitable underwear that makes you feel comfortable and at ease. You should choose pants that are a suitable size, not too tight, and do not make you feel stuffy.
Besides, choose pants made from soft material (such as cotton), good elasticity and absorbency. Wearing pants that are too tight will cause the private area to feel tight, sweat a lot and cause body odor.
You should also save underwear when going out, especially on days of heavy menstruation. In addition, during menstruation you should not wear tight jeans or leggings. Besides, you can use Bikini spray for a unique and different fragrance.
Eat lots of yogurt and limit foods high in protein
Foods high in protein and fat are "big taboos" during menstruation. During these days, you should eat legumes, green vegetables, fruits and especially yogurt.
Yogurt contains a large amount of lactobacillus bacteria - a type of bacteria that balances and maintains a stable pH environment, thereby helping to eliminate odors in private areas. Besides yogurt, blueberry juice, pineapple juice... also work to reduce body odor during menstruation.
Thus, increased sweating, mucus and menstruation are the main causes of body odor during menstruation . To limit body odor, you need to clean your body properly, regularly change sanitary napkins and use loose, comfortable clothes. You should also pay attention to your diet, do not consume fat or protein and eat more yogurt. Follow other articles related to body odor in the news section!