Written by: Mariangela Del Monaco, Sarah Cappellaro, and Vaidehi Patel
Vaginal cleansing products such as douches, washes, sprays, and wipes have become extremely popular in the last few decades. Despite their popularity, these products may pose health risk to their users like yeast infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and bacterial vaginosis (BV). Could this mean people prioritize a “clean” vagina over a “healthy” vagina?
We three undergraduate students hope to share our experience navigating the topic of vaginal health and public discourse in both academic and pharmaceutical spaces. Before joining Kieran O’Doherty’s Discourse, Science, and Publics laboratory at the University of Guelph, we had not been exposed to women’s health from a critical health psychology perspective. Now, we hope to share our experiences and insight we gained over the past year!
Sarah was the first to jump into this research, hoping to gain foundational knowledge that could help us understand more about vaginal health and public discourse. As she sifted through the data, she was surprised to find that among the 1471 women surveyed, 40.6% relied on vaginal moisturizers and lubricants as their go-to cleansing product. What really caught her off guard, though, was the discovery that 19.6% of participants practiced vaginal douching, a habit known to carry potential risks. She was surprised as she uncovered the research by Crann et al. (2018), which revealed that women who douched were 2.5 times more likely to develop a urinary tract infection (UTI), 3 times more likely to face a yeast infection, and a staggering 7 times more likely to contract bacterial vaginosis (BV). Although these are correlational data so we cannot infer the direction of causation, these findings raise important questions about the product’s potential adverse health outcomes. As she progressed in her research, Sarah couldn’t help but feel concerned when she read research by Jenkins et al. (2020), indicating that certain vaginal cleansing products could disrupt this delicate balance, potentially leading to lower reproductive tract infections or even infertility by stripping away healthy mucus and bacteria from the vaginal cavity (Jenkins et al., 2020).
This then led Mari to condense Dr. O’Doherty’s previous research on women’s health to learn more about exactly why women feel pressured to use vaginal cleansing products. In particular, she found the language surrounding women’s genital perception most interesting. In 2021, University of Guelph researchers Jenkins and O’Doherty’s qualitative work evaluated how women used language when discussing three different vaginal portrayals: the clean vagina, the healthy vagina, and the dirty vagina. Women articulated their definitions of the clean vagina as “desirable”, “odourless”, and “perfect”. Women “achieved” the clean vagina through regular use of cleansing products, helping them feel “in control” of their bodies (Jenkins & O’Doherty, 2021). Women remarked the healthy vagina as “normal”; not to be demonized or celebrated. Women did not use cleansing products to have a healthy vagina. Participants perceived the dirty vagina as “shameful”, “embarrassing”, and “gross.” The dirty vagina was associated with menstruation (Jenkins & O’Doherty, 2021). Through reading these works, Mari thought for many women the use of vaginal cleansing products was associated with prioritizing the clean vagina over the healthy vagina.
This guided us to the final step of our journey, which was to learn how these findings impact how healthcare providers, such as pharmacists, feel about these products. During an eye-opening conversation with a pharmacist from Guelph, Ontario, V uncovered fascinating insights into the cosmetic industry’s marketing strategies and regulatory loopholes. The pharmacist’s revelations highlighted the cunning tactics or “deceptions” utilized by producers of feminine cleansing products, particularly in their marketing campaigns. V was told that these products adeptly avoid making direct medical claims, allowing them to evade the rigorous testing requirements mandated for genuine health products. By sidestepping explicit health assertions and instead employing appealing terms like “clean” and “fresh,” these products manage to bypass extensive testing, leaving consumers susceptible to potential risks. As previously discussed, these products have the potential to disrupt the delicate balance of the vaginal microbiome, resulting in infections and discomfort. This showed us very clearly that there is an urgent need for increased transparency and ethical advertising practices within the cosmetic industry.
This experience in the DSP lab showed us the importance of considering vaginal health from a critical perspective in both the academic and pharmaceutical settings. Many approaches in health psychology would act on these findings by focusing on changing behaviours in women. Contrarily, taking on a critical perspective allowed us to see the societal factors shaping public discourse surrounding vaginal health. We were disappointed, but unsurprised, to see that the producers of these products were marketed for profit rather than women’s health, which could be the forefront.
About the Authors
Mariangela Del Monaco is about to begin the third year of her Honours Psychology undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph. As an aspiring adolescent psychologist, Mariangela is very excited to begin her journey in academic research and writing. Mariangela’s academic interests lie in leisure education and how it could be used to prevent high risk behaviour in adolescents.
Vaidehi Patel is an MSc candidate in Population Medicine: Epidemiology and Neuroscience at the University of Guelph. She is passionate about human health, environmental sustainability, and social justice initiatives. In the future, she hopes to be a biostatistician.
Sarah Cappellaro is an MSc candidate in Industrial Organizational Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. She is passionate about enhancing workplace environments for women and advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives.
References
Crann, S. E., Cunningham, S., Albert, A., Money, D. M., & O’Doherty, K. C. (2018). Vaginal health and hygiene practices and product use in Canada. A national cross-sectional survey. BMC Women’s Health, 18, 52. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-018-0543-y
Jenkins, A. & O’Doherty, K. C. (2021). The Clean Vagina, the Healthy Vagina, and the Dirty Vagina: Exploring Women’s Portrayals of the Vagina in Relation to Vaginal Cleansing Product Use. Feminism & Psychology, 31(2), 191-211. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520944144
Jenkins, A., Money, D., & O’Doherty, K. C. (2021). Is the vaginal cleansing product industry causing harm to women?. Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 19(3), 267-269. https://doi.org/10.1080/14787210.2020.1822166