Having sex without a condom is raising your risk of bacterial vaginosis

It looks like getting pregnant or catching an STI aren’t the only things we have to worry about while having condom-less sex.

New research confirms that unprotected sex can raise your risk of developing bacterial vaginosis, plus other vaginal infections.

This is important, because it confirms what loads of women have suspected when they keep developing thrush and other vagina-related symptoms after having sex with someone STI-free – sex with a new partner can mess with the vagina’s delicate bacterial balance.

The vagina depends on the maintenance of healthy bacteria, which help to prevent infections.

A new study from researchers in Australia have found that sex without a condom – even if the male partner is STI-free – disrupts the balance and can boost ‘bad’ bacteria linked to bacterial vaginosis – to such a significant degree that it’s incredibly hard to maintain a healthy bacterial balance.

This effect is worsened when having sex with a new partner (presumably because the new penis is more of a shock to the vagina’s delicate pH balance).

If you develop bacterial vaginosis, you can experience unusual discharge and – for some people – pain during sex.

It’s not unfixable. Treatment will typically feature a course of antibiotics or a vaginal pessary, which can restore the balance of healthy bacteria in the vagina.

But the research should serve as confirmation that your vagina isn’t ‘damaged’ or ‘weird’ – it’s just responding to condomless sex, which we now know can cause bacterial infections.

The study, from Melbourne’s Monach University, tracked the bacteria in 52 women’s vaginas for a year and asked them to make a note of whether they used condoms during penetrative sex.

The women who had unprotected sex with new partners ended up having higher concentrations of gardnerella vaginalis and lactobacillus iners in their vagina – both of which can cause bacterial vaginosis – than women using condoms or those in long-term relationships.

This doesn’t mean that you should ban yourself from having sex with new partners. As long as you’ve both been tested for STIs and come up clean, you go ahead (with some form of longterm contraception if you’re not planning on having babies).

Instead, this study should urge us to keep an eye on our vaginas, keep track of any unusual discharge (meaning a change in consistency, appearance, or smell), and not be embarrassed to let our doctors know what’s going on.

You can also reduce the risk by ensuring the men you have sex with keep their penis clean – particularly the area underneath the foreskin.

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