Pros and cons of probiotics for your vagina

Think of probiotics and gut health is what generally comes to mind. While well-known for improving the health of the digestive tract, probiotics may also be beneficial for your vagina.

Like your digestive tract, your vagina is teeming with beneficial bacteria and other microorganisms. It would make sense that if you take a vaginal probiotic to introduce live bacteria, this would support your genital health. Good genital health starts with a healthy vaginal microbiota helping ward off common gynecological conditions thought to be caused by an imbalance of bacteria inside the vagina. That’s where the prevailing thought that maybe using probiotics for the vagina, may help ease discomfort of vaginal infections such as urinary tract infections, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as miscarriage, fetal distress, premature rupture of membranes, and preterm delivery.

One of the more common vaginal infections among women is bacterial vaginosis in women in childbearing age. Bacterial vaginosis is associated with an overgrowth of harmful microorganisms, such as Gardnerella vaginalis or Prevotella, which outnumber healthier types of vaginal bacteria, including a common organism called Lactobacillus.

Another imbalance in the vagina is when a woman has a vaginal yeast infection. Vaginal yeast infections come from a fungus called Candida, which overcomes healthy bacteria. Candida can exist normally in the vagina without any problem, but it may cause trouble if it outnumbers other microorganisms.

While you may want to run out and buy probiotics to improve your vaginal health, there is not yet enough scientific support of all women doing so. At this time there is not enough information on introducing new bacteria using probiotics into the vagina would actually be helpful. Take additional bacteria and you may end up causing more harm than good. One study published in the journal Cell found that when people were given a probiotic after antibiotic treatment, their natural gut bacteria took longer to recover than did the gut bacteria of people who didn’t take a probiotic.

Experts say no conclusive evidence shows that probiotics are effective at preventing and treating vaginal conditions related to vaginal bacteria imbalance. Any woman who develops any of the conditions such as a urinary tract infection or bacterial vaginosis, antibiotics still remain the recommended treatment for these conditions. It is strongly advised that women should not attempt to treat these conditions by first using a probiotic but should instead, go to their healthcare provider to get a proper diagnosis to treat the underlying cause.  It’s possible their healthcare provider may suggest a probiotic after assessing the situation and a proper diagnosis has been made.

There are some scientific evidence suggesting probiotics in yogurt, capsules, and vaginal suppositories may help prevent and treat imbalance in your vagina. One small study in 1996, found that women who ate probiotic yogurt containing lactobacillus acidophilus, had a greater amount of lactobacillus bacteria in their vaginas than women who did not eat yogurt with this bacteria. These results suggest that probiotics found in food may have some kind of protective effect against vaginal imbalance.

Another small study found that women with bacterial vaginosis were given antibiotics for 7 days, while other women were given antibiotics with a probiotic or placebo for 30 days.  The cure rate at 30 days were close to 90 percent in the antibiotic-plus-probiotic group, in contract to 40 percent in the antibiotic-plus-placebo group. There have been other small studies suggesting that taking a daily probiotic capsule can be effective in preventing and treating vaginal imbalances.

These studies are encouraging but most of these studies investigating the effects of probiotics on vaginal balance are small and limited in scope. More research is needed to determine whether or not probiotics are appropriate for treating vaginal imbalance conditions.

However, on the horizon, is an ongoing trial of a vaginal Lactobacillus crispatus product called Lactin-V. At this time, the company producing this product is looking to seek FDA approval as a live biotherapuetic as opposed to a cosmetic or dietary supplement product, what is what is currently available.