There is a lot you are going to learn from this post, but first, what is intimate care? Intimate care may mean different things in different contexts, but here, intimate care will refer to the care of the body, especially the delicate parts of women’s body. For the promotion of health and immunity, intimate care is a very important aspect of female health. Unfortunately, many women do not know much about the concept of intimate care, or simply ignore it altogether.
Just like other basic things you do on a daily basis, special attention should also be paid to the care of the body, and more importantly, the private parts. Good health reflects in every aspect of your life as a human and has been linked to better productivity, and for you to have a good health, your body’s immune system need to be intact and functional.
There are some things women do, especially those involving the intimate parts of the body, that either promote their health or reduce their immunity. In this post, you are going to learn a few of some of these practices and know which ones you should modify if need be.
The female private part, especially the vagina, have an innate immune system that protects infections from establishing within it. Taking intimate care of your intimate reproductive part can help improve your health and immunity.
How Does Intimate Care Affect You?
Intimate care of your body can affect almost every aspect of your life as a social, reproductive and economic individual. Here are some ways intimate care can have impact on your life;
- It can impact your health
- It can impact your confidence in yourself
- It can affect your productivity at work
- It can affect your sexual life
- Intimate care can affect your relationship with other people, including romantic relationships
The list is almost endless but I will just stop it here, so I can go on to another important aspect of this topic of intimate care.
Intimate Care Tips For Better Female Health and Immunity
Here are a few intimate care tips for better vaginal health and immunity in women;
- Routinely wash your vulva with soap
- Routinely wash your vagina
- Use a condom during sex and urinate after having sex
- Regulate the tightness of your vagina during sex
- Wear cotton underwears
- Wash underwear before wearing it
Almost every woman have heard of these tips above, they know about them but they do not fully understand some of them. You will soon find out why I say so as we talk about them quickly.
Routinely wash your vulva with soap
The vulva is the outer part of the female part, that consist of the two lip-like labia covered with hair. It can be gently parted with the fingers and it leads to the vagina. The vulva covers the clitoris and the urethra, from where urine is expelled from the bladder.
The urethra become soiled with sweat and sebum at the end of the day. It is covered with many sweat glands draining out of the sweat pores over the overlying skin. It has has sweat glands that produce viscid sweat that can become dirty if not washed off.
Intimate care requires that you wash your vulva area with soap routinely, and not just when it is scratching you or giving your discomfort. It should be washed even when it does not feel unhealthy. The vulva as an intimate area should be washed at least 3 to 4 times daily, especially during menstrual periods or monsoons.
Washing the vulva involves a careful and systematic procedure as follows;
- You will require a plain unscented or a hypoallergenic soap or a feminine wash, and warm water. Harsh, perfumed soaps can irritate your vulva and the lower vagina. Some people can tolerate lightly scented soaps without any problems but if you have a past history of irritations, you should switch to an unscented or hypoallergenic soap.
- Use your hand or a very soft washcloth to wash your vulva. Avoid scrubbing too harshly.
- Start by spreading your outer labia and clean around the clitoris while you carefully clean in-between the creases and folds in your vulva and entrance of the vagina.
- Avoid letting soap into the vagina to prevent irritation and decreasing the vagina immunity.
- When cleaning the vulva, always wipe from front to back, such that you clean your anal area last. This is important because if you clean the intimate part by swiping from back to front, you might introduce infectious agents or germs from the anus to your vulva and vagina, ending up as vaginal or urinary tract infections.
- Rinse thoroughly with clean water after washing. Ensure that you wash off all the soap from your genital area with clean warm water. If you use a handheld shower jet, be careful not to spray water inside the vagina. Making the vagina too moist can affect the pH of the vagina, and the water jet can push unwanted bacteria into the vagina.
- Finally, gently dry your genitals with a dry towel or a blow dryer.
Avoid washing your vagina with soap
The vagina is self-cleaning and may not require you to wash it aggressively. It has a ver low pH (about 3.8 to 4.5) that help kill disease-causing bacteria within it. However, the vagina provides a good environment for yeast and other natural bacteria that help to protect the vagina from other bacteria that cause disease, but they do not normally cause disease or infection. When you alter the pH or introduce difficult germs into the vagina, it can get infected.
There are many products in the market that promises you good vaginal hygiene and keep the vagina fresh. These may be effective as they claim but as much as possible, you should stay away from douches, and other such products that are used to wash the vagina. They can cause direct irritation of the vagina and may destroy the natural bacteria and yeast that protects the vagina from infection with disease-causing organisms.
Use a condom during sex and urinate after having sex
Like I mentioned, intimate body care affects your sexual life too. When your intimate genital area is infected, it can cause itchiness, pain and discharge tha may make the act of sex unenjoyable. Ironically, most of the problems of your genital can arise due to sex, especially unprotected sex.
Condom is a barrier method of contraceptive. It not only protect against unwanted pregnancy following sex, it can also protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Hence, it is recommended as a contraceptive method when you are to have sex with a partner you are not married to.
It is advisable for a woman to urinate immediately after having sex. This is because the urine has high salt content that can kill certain infectious bacteria that may have been introduced into the vulva. Even when a condom was used, it is still advisable to urinate after sexual intercourse. Germs from the vulval skin can be pushed from the vulva where they cause no disease into the vagina where they are not supposed to be, during the act of sex.
Regulate the tightness of your vagina during sex
The vagina vault is a tubular cavity deep to the vulva and opens into the cervix and uterus (womb). It is lined by a mucous membrane. The vagina have some elasticity, the wall closes up on itself but can stretch to accommodate varying sizes of objects, the male organ or a child during birth.
Several schools of though have arisen about vaginal tightness. They claim that vaginal tightness is important during sex, and that the vagina can lose its elasticity on repeated sexual intercourse. These may not be entirely true but I am going to tell what I know about this.
The vagina changes texture and elasticity with sex and childbirth. The vagina of a girl/woman who is having sex for the first time may feel tighter and more compact but there are many reasons why this is so. The vagina is still very much elastic by this time and has a firm grip on whatever is introduced into it.
Also, during sex, the vagina secretes fluid to lubricate the entry of the male organ. This smoothness, coupled with a very tightly elastic vagina vault can make the sexual experience very enjoyable. But this lubrication can be a problem during sex. When the vagina is extremely lubricated (that is, the woman is wet), it can make the vagina feel less tight. Some men may complain of this and may accuse the woman of having sex too many times. This accusation may not be true but it has negatively affected many people.
The V-tight Gel is a product made to make the vagina feel tighter during sex. It forms a layer of gel in the vagina that also enhances lubrication, while still increasing the viscousity of penetration. This product is reported to be safe and effective.
Wear cotton underwears
Intimate care also involves using the right clothing material for your underwears. Cotton underwears act as good adsorbent to keep the genitals dry at all times. The use of nylon underwears is not recommended and is seriously frowned at.
Wash underwear before wearing it
Washing your underwears before wearing is something you should already know by now. Also, you should change your underwears after a short period of use or when they get soiled or wet.
Conclusion
Intimate care of the female body cuts across many aspects of a woman’s life. Hence, special attention must be paid to this care. Unlike in males, the female genital part has a direct opening with the exterior. This calls for a special intimate care of the area. These intimate care tips will help you improve your health, especially reproductive health, and immunity.
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