Vulva is healthy but smells bad

March 16, 2021 4:23 AM

YANMD but I've tried all her suggestions. The past few months, I've frequently had a very very strong musty vulva odor. No infections, no other symptoms. I wear loose cotton underwear and go without at home. I trim my hair. I have a Mirena IUD and don't menstruate. I haven't been sexually active in months. The only symptom is the odor, and washing with gentle soap doesn't help. I'd like to figure this out so I can maybe get laid again before I die. FWIW, I'm not squeamish about my body odors in general; this is abnormal and strong. I avoid feminine hygiene products but am open to other ideas.
posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

Do you know about bacterial vaginosis? Super common with an array of symptoms and it can happen regardless of sexual activity. Basically the bacterial balance of your genitals gets out of whack. Usually this is treated with antibiotics but it’s also very common to return after the antibiotics because you have just basically removed everything, and it gets repopulated with bad bacteria too fast for the good guys to move in. Some people have success taking probiotics specifically for vaginal health after an antibiotic course (I am currently taking the rephresh pro-b probiotic, results seem promising so far, but my only symptom is external itching). Some people do all sorts of combinations of treatments. There’s whole subreddits about living with BV.

Your first line implies that you have spoken to your doctor about this but have you actually had an exam yet? A vaginal discharge test is pretty fast and straightforward, once you get past the whole, yknow, speculum thing. It can help point you in the right direction or at least rule out things.
posted by Mizu at 4:46 AM on March 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

Look up Boric Acid suppositories - they're incredible and they WORK. I don't know about how good they are for vaginal health long term, but they've been used in the past to treat BV and I think it's what you need.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 4:57 AM on March 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

If your STD tests come back negative and your BV test also shows nothing, look into being tested for STDs like mycoplasma genitalium/ ureaplasma, which doctors never seem to test for without prompting, but are increasingly common and make you smell really bad.

Another thought is to take probiotics for vaginal health (the refrigerated kind, I think Jarrow had a good one for vaginal health I used to get at Whole Foods), esp if you end up using boric acid.
posted by shaademaan at 5:34 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

The lab where I used to work would occasionally get orders from OB/GYNs to culture exam samples for a bacterial/fungal flora analysis. I'm not an expert on the etiology of the health/environmental/dietary/etc. factors that can cause the predominant flora to change, but I certainly know that minor changes can lead to pretty dramatically apparent signs (i.e. things that you notice without needing to go to the doctor to be told about). Just an FYI, it may be something you want to bring up with your practitioner of choice. These aren't quick-turnaround tests (10-15 days to culture, depending what's being looked for), mind you, but they're not complicated, either. It's a swab followed by patience.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 5:44 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

Also, previously on Metafilter
posted by shaademaan at 5:45 AM on March 16, 2021

Anecdotally I have had this and it seems linked to the mirena for me.
posted by corvine at 6:10 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

I had this linked to an IUD as well, I never had it with Marina, but I had it with another IUD (I forget what it was called). I could treat it with antibiotics and it helped a little bit or for a little while, but it never really went away until I had the IUD taken out
posted by sillysally at 7:49 AM on March 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I agree, my first thought was BV and my second thought was the Mirena. As much as I loved my IUD, it did cause some weird vaginal issues and they all seemed to go away once I had my IUD taken out. (Anecdotally, the arm implant has caused none of these problems.)
posted by umwhat at 8:55 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

For treatment options, my previous OB/GYN always suggested plain yogurt inserted vaginally. She swore by it, but I never actually tried it, so good luck.
posted by doyouknowwhoIam? at 10:21 AM on March 16, 2021

Yogurt vaginally isn't a fix - it contains a different (bovine) kind of lactobacillus than exists in the human vaginal biome.
posted by tristeza at 11:10 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

Please don’t put food or home remedies in your vagina.

Foul odor is sometimes the only symptom for common vaginal infections, so the only real answer here is to ask your dr.

IUDs can irritate the surrounding tissue for some people which can cause odor. I’ve had 3 IUDs, one of which was accompanied by 2 years of odor and abnormal discharge but consistently negative for infection. My OBGYN and I fixed it by removing the IUD, taking a course of antibiotics followed by an anti fungal and the replacing with a different IUD.
posted by shesdeadimalive at 12:04 PM on March 16, 2021 [7 favorites]

Seconding please don't put random things in your vagina on the advice of internet strangers.

Is the source of the odor solely internal (vagina) or external (vulva), or both? Have you clarified on that point with your doctor? Internal odor might indeed be IUD, yeast, or BV; external odor could be anything -- hormones, diet, prior funk trapped in clothing, fungus, or good old-fashioned BO germs doing what they do best.
posted by armeowda at 2:30 PM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

You don't see if you've had an exam. That would be a good first step, and yes, do ask to get tested for BV.
posted by bluedaisy at 3:35 PM on March 16, 2021

Have you tried applying deodorant gel in your "leg pits" (where leg meets vulva)? Had some funk I suspect was related to perimenopause hormonal swings and skin bacteria balance, using the same unscented gel as on my armpits helped a lot.
posted by superna at 7:08 PM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Just pointing out that OP said "vulva" , not "vagina" so .. I'm thinking some of these hot tips folks suggested may not apply ?
posted by elgee at 10:02 PM on March 16, 2021

Assuming you are talking about outer labia/mons pubis/any area with hair follicles: witch hazel applied topically with a cotton ball. It’s used after waxing to soothe and clean the skin and will temporarily neutralize odor causing bacteria. It evaporates quickly and I wouldn’t be concerned about it migrating to you inner labia and disrupting your vaginal flora.
posted by fozzie_bear at 6:31 PM on April 17, 2021