Have you ever heard someone compare the smell of the reproductive parts of a woman to the ocean or a fish? If you are partnered with or are a woman, perhaps you’ve often thought that those two things smell nothing alike at least in your own experience. Have you ever wondered where that comparison and rather ugly trend came from? Well, it might come as no surprise that it was born of an advertising campaign meant to sell products geared towards making a woman “smell better.”
There used to be a time when there was no market for special vagina soaps and creams or a particular type of wipe with fragrance using a “special Ph balance.” Women washed everything much the same way men did, if perhaps a bit more frequently. Then in the early 1800s, several men hit upon an untapped market for a liquid contraceptive: The douche. The douche was commercialized in 1843 and anyone with a vagina was told they must have it to prevent pregnancies. Spoiler alert: Douching does not prevent pregnancy though it does raise your chances of serious and even life threatening complications. Women everywhere rushed to the market to pick up this miracle device to prevent unwanted babies and sales soared. The liquid used in the douche went through many variations including water with vinegar or baking soda or iodine but the device itself remains mechanically similar to this day.
Finally, in the early 1900s, Lysol took a turn. Advertisements would say that a man wouldn’t love his wife unless she smelled sweet like fruit or flowers and their products were the only way to do it! Lysol described the proper way to practice hygiene and “protect your married happiness.” It was a germ-killing contraceptive that everyone needed. Women died but the douche survived.
In the 1980s, the market for douches shifted as oral contraceptives made their way onto the scene. Even though douching as a form of contraception never completely died (at that time Coca-cola was making an appearance as the favored liquid used), the marketing scheme decided to lean more into the hygiene part of their douching claims. Again they needed to create more of a market for their product so ads began to circulate claiming that the way women’s bodies smelled naturally was unclean or unhygienic. Creams, soaps and, of course, douches again began to rise to meet the wave of inferiority marketers had created in women.
Today, one in four women still practice douching on a regular basis despite the warnings of medical professionals and researchers. Studies have shown that douching increases the risk of an ectopic pregnancy by more than 70 percent! It does not protect a person from STIs or permanently alter the scent of one’s body. In fact, douching increases the harmful bacteria introduced into the vagina and reduces the body’s ability to clean it out effectively thus significantly increasing the chance of infection. Douching once a week can increase your risk of bacterial vaginosis by 5 times! The vagina is self cleaning! If you think you have something wrong, see a doctor but let’s shake this harmful trend of products pushed on women under the guise of hygiene. The best thing you can do for your body is to eat well, drink water and stay out of its way!