What Is Vagina Supposed To Smell Like

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What Is Vagina Supposed To Smell Like
This Is What Your Vagina Is Supposed To Smell Like
Hint: it's not freshly baked cookies.
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Maybe you've wondered, "Does my vagina smell normal?" YourTango gets down to business.
I don't care how comfortable you are with your own body, we all have those moments where we think about how we smell down there. Maybe it's at the doctor's office before a pelvic exam, or it might be as your partner is making their way to your vagina for some up-close and personal fun. You wonder, "Do I smell normal? And what is normal anyway? What is a vagina supposed to smell like?"
Healthy vaginas often do have smells! Most of the time, these vagina scents aren't awful—they just smell like a vagina; like the way you sometimes smell sweaty or how your feet stink in certain shoes. We smell like humans, and the smell of our vaginas depend on certain factors. If you just took a shower and washed your lady-bits, there probably isn't any smell. But if you just had a marathon sex session, your vagina will have an odor.
It's important not to forget that your vagina also secretes pheromones that are supposed to trigger sexual interest and excitement.
"I don't know how to describe what a vagina should smell like, but I can tell you what it shouldn't smell like," says Mary Jane Minkin, M.D. , clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at Yale University School of Medicine. "The vagina shouldn't smell like rotten fish or anything rotting. [That odor] is from bacterial vaginosis , which is really an imbalance of good guy and bad guy bacteria (the bad guys are the anaerobic bacteria which tend to be overgrowing, and anaerobes classically produce a foul or rotting type odor)."
"Many women notice after having their periods that there is a different odor," says Sara Gottfried, M.D. , founder and medical director of The Gottfried Center for Integrative Medicine and author of The Hormone Cure . " A lot of women notice a change in scent after having sex . Semen is really basic—it has a pH of around eight—so when you have sex, it changes the pH in the vagina to the basic side of things."
The good news is that vaginas are self-cleaning and they naturally produce some discharge that helps to eject germs and bacteria out of your body, like a bouncer at the exclusive Vagina Club. You have regular discharge , which is mostly white with a little yellow, but when it's grey or neon green or yellow, that's not good.
"Another thing that we do see causing bad odors is a retained tampon," said Dr. Minkin. "If someone does notice a foul odor, check in for a retained tampon (something folks forget to take out at the end of their period). If they find one and cannot remove it, call the health care provider to remove it. That's one of the few times a douche would be helpful , and then follow it up with some RepHresh, an over-the-counter solution that helps keep the pH levels healthy."
As far as smell goes, Dr. Minkin says, "There are times I do see women who complain of an odor, and I don't smell anything abnormal. The one thing I strongly discourage women from doing is using scented products in the vagina, because that tissue is the most delicate in the body, and the most sensitive to irritation like an allergen."
For the most part, don't mess with your vagina. It knows how to take care of itself. If you do see or smell something that doesn't seem right, have a health care professional check it out.
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We hear this question (and misinformation on this topic) ALL THE TIME, and we decided that today is the day we’re going to answer it. But first, a quick anatomy refresher. Your vulva is all the parts on the outside, including your inner and outer labia and your clitoris. Your vagina is the part that’s on the inside of your body (where tampons and other things can go if you so choose). When most people talk about the way their vagina smells, they really mean their vulva. After all, it’s pretty hard to smell something that’s inside your body.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get back to the question. And the best way to answer it is to start with what your vulva definitely should NOT smell like.
Despite what the “feminine hygiene” (don’t even get us started on how f-ed up that phrase is) aisle at your local drugstore would have you believe, your vulva should not smell like Island Splash, Sheer Floral, Delicate Blossom, Morning Paradise, or Sunset Oasis, whatever any of those things smell like.
We checked in with our on-staff medical provider, Robin Watkins, who’s a nurse practitioner and a certified nurse-midwife, and here’s what she told us: “It’s normal for your vagina and vulva to have a smell, just like it’s normal for your underarms to have a smell. Body smells are a part of being human and come from bacteria breaking down sweat on your skin.”
And there is a range of normal smells. What’s normal for one person may be different from what’s normal for another person. Just like you wouldn’t expect your armpits to smell identical to your friend’s, neither will your vulva smell just like anyone else’s.
It’s absolutely normal for your smell to change. Watkins says that your menstrual cycle, exercising, the weather, having sex, and even eating certain foods, like onions and garlic, can change the way your vulva smells.
Most smells are normal. Smells that could indicate a problem are fishy or sour odors, or any kind of rotting smell. The other thing to watch out for is if you have a smell that’s unusual for you at the same time that you have other symptoms, like pain, itching, unusual discharge (especially if the discharge itself has a smell), burning, bleeding when you have sex, or fever. If that happens, you should definitely check in with a health care provider because it could be a sign of a more serious problem. Also, if you notice an entirely new smell that you’ve never had before, or if your smell is bothering or worrying you, go get it checked out.
Assuming that you’ve ruled out any actual problems, your worry is just that—a worry. Try to internalize that you are not supposed to smell like nothing, and, as we’ve established, that you’re DEFINITELY not supposed to smell like perfume.
Whatever you do, don’t resort to using products marketed for eliminating odor. According to Watkins, “It’s counterintuitive, but using soaps with a lot of perfume or washing inside the vagina, like douching, can actually upset the balance of the bacteria in the vagina, causing a fishy odor.”
In fact, and perhaps we’ve buried the lede here, but neither your vulva nor your vagina need any kind of cleanser ! That includes even the mildest soap. Your vulva only needs to be washed with lukewarm water, and your vagina actually doesn’t even need to be washed with water—it’s self-cleaning. It lives its best life when it’s left alone, like a very introverted and/or feral cat.
Ultimately, we’re going to have to learn to accept that people with vulvas and vaginas are humans, and humans have smells. It’s fine, we promise.
Lauren Kernan is the Director of Content and UX Strategy for Bedsider and Abortion Finder. In her spare time, she can be found sewing or starting and giving up on various other crafts.
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(I can’t even tell you how many women have apologized to me before a pelvic exam for what is absolutely normal vaginal scent! I now always give women a pep talk before even starting on an exam and reassure her that every woman has a normal scent, and even if she doesn’t have a healthy scent, it’s okay – that’s what she’s in the office for!)
If nobody ever told you what a healthy vagina is supposed to smell like, join the club. Knowing is incredibly important because what makes a vagina’s odor healthy – or not – has an impact on your overall health. As women, we have to understand our history to understand our present and shape our future.
Read the article below or click the audio player above learn all about the deadly douche story that never should have happened, how to sort out healthy scents from problem-signaling odors, and what you can do to get your vaginal ecology in top form. Note episode has some explicit girl-talk. 
How to Keep Your Man. Nope, it’s not a Hillary Clinton comment or line from a Tammy Wynette ballad. Actually, it’s the concept behind a shocking ad campaign for a dangerous and deadly practice that was prominently displayed in newspapers and magazines, and persisted from the early 1900s into the 1960s. It was for using a household cleaner to do exactly that – keep your man. How? By keeping your vagina smelling clean. I am not kidding.
What was this household cleaner? Lysol. Yes, that’s right. Lysol. The very same Lysol that is still used to disinfect toilets and other high microbe areas was recommended as a douche for vaginal odor from the early 1900s into the 1960s. Except the Lysol back then was far more toxic and caustic even than the one we can now purchase – and keep in mind that the version we have today can kill a child if it is consumed. The formulation available until the early 1960s was far more corrosive.
I’m not talking about Lysol being recommended as some crazy ‘home remedy,’ either. There were extensive ad campaigns in newspapers and magazines targeted at women, with copy like: “She was a jewel of a wife, with just one flaw. She was guilty of the one neglect that mars many marriages. Lysol helps avoid this.” Women were portrayed as locked in rooms or caught in cobwebs suffering from their ‘lack of dainty femininity.’ The cure? A Lysol douche. I’ve posted a few choice ads here – and you can use a Google search to find more. It’s shocking and worth 15 minutes of your time, because it helps us to understand some of the forces that have led to a what is now a multibillion dollar annual profit for companies producing feminine hygiene products – which still try to sanitize every aspect of being a woman. It’s just that now we’re told we can smell ‘garden fresh.’
By 1911, 193 cases of poisoning and death occurred as a result of its use as a douche – for whichever purpose women were using it – yet this practice was promoted into the 1950s. Despite lawsuits, the company producing Lysol managed to skirt all responsibility. When one husband tried to sue the company for the horrible vaginal blistering and damage his wife sustained as a result of this ‘treatment,’ he was informed by the company that this was the first case of problems they’d heard of.
This horrific ad campaign reeked of misogyny, and was the start of women experiencing terrible anxiety, embarrassment, shame, and confusion over what was likely most often normal vaginal odor and discharge. It put tremendous pressure on women to remain “fresh and clean” – in other words odorless – ‘down there’ to keep a man. It remains a powerful reminder of the influence of media on our health care choices, and how wrong we can be about the safety of the substances we put in our bodies. As there was also some dangerous and possibly deadly use of Lysol douche for abortion in a time when women couldn’t legally access contraceptives – douches were said to prevent pregnancy – it’s also a powerful reminder of the desperate lengths women will go for reproductive health when safer methods aren’t accessible.
As women, we have to understand our history to understand our present and shape our future.
Like you, I had the requisite 4th grade health class. And like yours probably was too, mine was useless. I learned the word ‘period,’ but that was about it. I certainly did not learn anything about vaginal odors – normal or not. Then when I was 15 I heard an old joke – “Adam and Eve go for a swim. Eve comes out of the water and God says, ‘Damn it, now I’ll never get that smell out of the fish.’ ” So is fishy a normal vaginal odor? All the time? After my period? Never? I had no idea…It took studying to be a midwife to find out! I’m going to pass along the basics so you’re in the know, too.
The bottom line is that your vagina smells like yours, and mine smells like mine, and when everything is AOK down there, that scent is unique to each of us. But there are some commonalities, and there are also specific scents – or sometimes odors – that tell you your vagina needs some attention.
Here’s how it all works. Your vagina has a garden growing in it. Your natural garden is made up of bacteria and yeasts, not roses and lavender that make you smell like the garden fresh scent promised by a douche company. (I mean that literally, as in they make douches, not as in that company is a douche as some teens might say it!) So, it’s a much earthier, sometimes even musky scent. The job of this vaginal garden is quite fascinating. The basic function is keep your pH in the right range to protect you from harmful kinds bacteria and problematic yeast overgrowth – the kind that cause Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and yeast infections, to name a few of the types of infections we can develop.
When your vaginal ecology is disrupted, you can find yourself dealing with annoying discharge and vaginal odors, and also recurrent yeast or BV infections. In addition, the vaginal microbiome plays a surprisingly big role in the overall health of your uterus and sex hormones, and also plays an important role in protecting you from vaginal and pelvic infections, but also pelvic and uterine inflammation, and as a result, endometriosis , PCOS , chronic pelvic pain, and fertility problems. A healthy vaginal microbiome may even help protect us from the impact of environmental exposures, known to cause some of these chronic conditions.
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One of the most important groups of bacteria that helps keep the natural balance in most women is Lactobacillus , though interestingly, women of different racial backgrounds have varying types of vaginal flora typically present – and it’s all still normal. Lactobacillus keeps the vaginal pH low by producing lactic acid, which in turn, prevents less-vagina friendly yeasts, bacteria, and other organisms from getting a foothold and causing problems. A decrease in Lactobacilli , for example, a common friendly microbiome member, and an increase in less-friendly bacteria has been found in women with endometriosis and is believed to play a role in hormonal imbalance in women with this condition by adversely altering hormone and immune system signaling. This can result in reduced sensitivity of the uterine lining (endometrium) to progesterone, and cause increased inflammation, problems we see with endometriosis.
Healthy vaginal flora promotes a healthy, supportive environment for conception and implantation. There are so many fascinating ways this happens, notably that the organisms hanging around in your vagina interact with your immune system to create signaling messages that say, okay, this is a safe environment, let’s do this! Gut and vaginal dysbiosis have now been directly linked to implantation problems, as well as to recurrent miscarriage. The wrong kind of gut flora can prevent conception, have been shown to reduce or even prevent IVF and embryo transfer effectiveness, can increase miscarriage risk, and can lead to preterm birth when you do get pregnant.
Members of the Lactobacillus family (there are quite a few species) also help to keep the vaginal wall healthy by promoting mucus production, thus providing a protective barrier against other bacteria, yeasts, and viruses – including HIV. It appears that we established a symbiotic relationship with these friendly organisms about 12 centuries ago when we introduced yogurt and other fermented dairy products into our diets.
But here’s an interesting fact: being grossed out or feeling disgust is a learned response, and a lot of women have this reaction about their own absolutely normal healthy vaginal scent. I don’t mean someone actually taught you to be grossed out the same way you got taught to read or ride a two-wheeler, but we internalize the messages we learn from our culture, more like racism or ageism or sexism – and being disgusted by women’s natural body processes is up there on the list of cultural revulsions that we may tacitly internalize unless taught otherwise. I’m teaching you otherwise right here and now. This is important because studies make it very clear that how we feel about our lady parts isn’t benign – it has the power to influence our entire experience of being women. Feeling badly about our bodies is associated with increased likelihood of gynecologic problems, poor self-care, and more risk-taking sexual behavior. Self-knowledge and self-love are important preventative measures in women’s health.
One thing your vagina never needs is douching. Your vagina is self-cleaning. That’s what the mucus, and trillions of health-promoting, pH-balancing bacteria are there for. In fact, the American Public Health Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) specifically recommend against douching because it’s associated with an increase in bacterial infections! In addition, ACOG recommends against the use of fragranced tampons and pads, as well as feminine sprays and powders, to help prevent or clear up vulvar disorders. They commonly cause allergic reactions including itching and burning, they can inflame and damage your delicate vaginal tissue, and alter your natural pH enough to cause vaginal infections like BV. Get enough irritation down there and you’re also more susceptible to picking up a sexually transmitted infection.
Vaginas aren’t supposed to smell like flowers. They are supposed to smell like vaginas. So what’s a healthy one smell like? Yours smells uniquely like yours. Mine like mine. And that’s part of the beauty of who we are.
What about vaginal steaming? Sometimes called ‘a facial for your vagina,’ and a traditional prac
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