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Depends on what you’re smelling. It might be its natural odor, which you might notice more if you’re not showering/bathing every other day.
Of course, it could also be an infection, but in my 20+ years of being post-op, there’s usually some symptoms accompanying it, like itching or excessive discharge.
I do NOT recommend douching, as this has caused me several UTIs in the past.
I douche after every dilation to clear out the lube though
you shouldn't need to do this after the initial healing period, though. the lube liquefies as it heats up to body temperature and will just fall straight out of your canal. you only need to douche to clean out stuff that won't come out, like if you have an infection or if you've got a lot of loose dead skin that's ready to flake off (usually only during the surgical healing period).
think about it like this -- when you flood the canal with tap water, you're creating a warm, moist environment that's really great for a ton of different kinds of bacteria to grow on. tap water has a neutral pH whereas your canal ideally has an acidic pH -- this means you're disrupting that environment and neutralizing it's pH. bacteria that need a more acidic pH and help your body to maintain that pH get washed out and bacteria that prefer a neutral pH and modify your internal environment to maintain that pH start growing instead.
so douching should really be an only when needed kinda thing and your best off trying to create an internal environment that can take care of itself. do you take a probiotic? a dietary one that helps support the bacteria you want in your canal is a good idea, especially after you've taken the other suggestion to douche with some vinegar to restore the pH of your canal and kill the odor-causing bacteria.
is the pre-op, mtf canal self-cleaning? or can you make it self cleaning like you said with pro-biotic. i dont think i’m understanding.
post-op, you mean? studies have been done on whether the canal supports the appropriate flora and fauna to compare the various surgical techniques but like... even your body skin maintains a slightly acidic pH and if you get the right bacteria living in there, they'll do the rest of the work.
yea i meant post lol. ah i see so do you have to, for lack of a better word, train it?
I'm 2 years post op and I have to douche... If I don't the lube turns into what looks like yeast and smells bad. Also after sex... don't want to keep man stuff up there.
That's very interesting and thank you for writing all that out. I'm not completely convinced that neo vaginas have the same self cleansing properties as congenital ones nor the same upkeep requirements but you've definitely given me something to consider.
my surgeon told me to douche only once every two weeks (not more) and only during the initial healing period. After dilating it's better to just push down a bit and let the lube fall out on its own.
My surgeon's instructions were to douche with saline solution after every single dilation for the first 3 months.
Maybe I misread my long term instructions. Thanks
I haven't douched a single time since surgery 8 months ago, per surgeon's orders, and have very little, exceedingly neutral smell
I was getting lots of discharge and a bad smell while I was still douching during the first few months post-surgery, which was even the recommended by my surgeon. I contacted the clinic and was told to stop douching and the discharge and smell very quickly went away. I haven't douched in over 5 years and my vagina always smells nice. So I'd wager you're having a similar issue. I was only using tap water with a small amount of iodine, so similar to you using just water.
My instructions from Dr. Bluebond's office are douching once or twice weekly after the initial healing. Overall my experience with overwashing any part of my skin is that it goes haywire because i disrupted its own way of keeping homeostasis. Therefore i recon there could be such a thing as too much douching. Oh also they recommend some kind of saline and vinegar mixture instead of OTC, but i cant remember exactly. Oh also maybe your brand of lube could be a culprit.
I'd change the brand of lube and also the douching schedule if i were you. Have a great day :)
What do you use to douche? Ideally you want low pH to keep the BV away. I do half distilled water, half distilled vinegar. It's work but most cis women I know have similarly strict regimens. It's all about cultivating good bacteria.
For all the downvoters, here's the words straight from Bluebond-Langner
https://i.ibb.co/9GshjYV/Smart-Select-20220115-090421-Drive.jpg
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Not vinegar, that's my surgeons recommendation. But they are using boric acid which is similar. It's all about getting the pH down. Literally go check /r/healthyhooha
Literally straight from Bluebond:
https://i.ibb.co/9GshjYV/Smart-Select-20220115-090421-Drive.jpg
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You mean like OP?
Hell, here's the suggestion from Bluebond herself
https://i.ibb.co/9GshjYV/Smart-Select-20220115-090421-Drive.jpg
For natal vaginas boric acid is only really recommended to use in the case of bacterial vaginosis, otherwise as the previous poster said best not to mess with it at all.
Genetic vaginas self-clean and nothing should be put inside them to clean them. Ik some people do but it's not advised
Just tap water 😅
If you’re using a lube with Glycerin that can mess with your ph something furious. Switch to good clean love or another high quality glycerin free lube and stop douching it out, just try not to use too much.
So, i have no idea if this will be relevant, because I'm a trans man. But back in the days i had this problem and i learnt we weren't supposed to, like, torture the thing with soap, because it just ruined its physiological balance and made things worse. Lots of people just use the high pressure water in the shower, no soap at all. Or they use "intimate soap" or whatever brands call it- it's mild and with a neuter pH. ALSO: wet wipes instead of toilet paper. This saved my life.
Not applicable to trans women; the tissues differ greatly in their anatomy.
In my experience it's quite applicable. My surgeon instructs to follow methods very much like this and I've had excellent results with it
If it’s coming from inside your vagina, you might have bad bacteria growing inside.
Take distilled water and mix it with betadine (about 5:1 ratio). Use a rubber squeeze bulb and fill it with this solution. Gently insert and squeeze it to disinfect inside your vagina. Do this once a day for 3 days to make sure it’s clean inside.
After that, stop douching and don’t do it again unless you have problems again. But be sure to always clean the outside of your vagina EVERY day with mild soap and water to help prevent further infections from occurring in the first place.
Also try to incorporate healthy probiotics into your diet to promote good vaginal bacterial flora. That means eating probiotic rich foods like sauerkraut or yogurt or just take supplements.
You could have a bacterial infection (Bacterial Vaginosis) and that could cause odor. You should have it checked out at your doctors.
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Well, I don't seem to have any other symptoms like pain or difficulty urinating, or anything. Thanks to the other comments on this post I'm avoiding douching for a while and if that doesn't clear it up maybe it's time to find a gynecologist.
stop douching, start using boric acid pessaries once a day -- only thing that will help (speaking from over a year of chronic yeast infections & bv experience)
I had BV bacterial vaginosis a couple of years after my surgeries and had a terrible few weeks of stink and treatment.
Are you using a water based lube or something petroleum based or silicone based ?
Either of the latter 2 just isn't something that should be inside your vag as it is hard to get out in general - I remember how difficult it was after my vaginaplasty and labiaplasty and that first year post-op with way too many messy dilations and it would have helped immensely not to be using the original K-Y LUBE in particular.
Now that I am using water based lube my external washing is just about everything I need as the lube evaporates or is absorbed gradually. I rarely disturb inside except maybe if I feel the need to clear out semen during a rare bit of riskier sex without a condom. Usually I let it just be eaten by my good bacterial flora.
I am approaching my 25th anniversary of GCS/SRS in April fwiw.
Barbara
Wow, happy tranniversary! 25 years, that's amazing!
Thanks for the concern but I am using a water-based lube. Thanks to everyone in this thread last night was my first time dilating without douching afterward and it was nice. I don't particularly like doing it, haha
25th will likely happen for you too and seemingly both very quickly and somewhat slowly. My 25th Re-birthday anniversary will happen April 8, 2022.
Wow. Really the first time not dilating+douching ?
A good water based lube is a wonderful thing I got soon after my intense period of dilation and surely am sorry I did'nt know sooner. All those 16 tubes / case of K-Y Jelly was horrible stuff I daily needed to douche out.
I first got Wet and now mostly use Sliquid Organics (in Natural).
I was even more excited about 30 years of HRT on Aug.31, 2021.
Barbara
And speaking of dilation I learned to be a bit of a Masochist (though I started out being joyous about facial electrolysis despite the pain of 500 hours of zaps to get it all dead).
Maybe go to a doctor?
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Removed. Rule 3.
Report chasers, trolls and hate speech. Do not engage, let the mods take care of it. Arguing with trolls encourages them and makes moderation more difficult.
Understood. Thank you
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Penile inversion
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