Women's Health Knowledge Gynecology

90% of common gynecological discomforts are related to bad nursing habits and hormone fluctuations. There is no need to hide the disease and avoid medical treatment, and don’t scare yourself into using medication indiscriminately. By doing daily scientific care + regular screening, most problems can be avoided in advance.

Let me tell you a true story that I encountered in the outpatient clinic last week. A 22-year-old girl who had just graduated and lived in a shared house bought an Internet celebrity's weak acid private parts wash every day to "pay attention to hygiene." You may have heard two completely opposite opinions: one says that private parts need to be "deeply cleaned" so that there will be no odor, and the other says that they can only be washed with clean water. In fact, from a clinical perspective, this boundary is very clear: when you don’t feel any discomfort in daily life, just rinse the vulva with warm and cool water, and there is no need to touch the inside of the vagina at all. ； If you already have itching or abnormal leucorrhea, don’t just buy lotion to wash it off by yourself. Find out what type of inflammation it is first, and follow the doctor’s advice to use medicated lotion to intervene. If you don’t have any symptoms, washing your hands without symptoms will simply destroy your own defense system.

Speaking of what everyone is most likely to be deceived, it has to be "cervical erosion", an old misunderstanding that has been circulating for decades. Not long ago, a 30-year-old patient came over and cried with a physical examination report. She said that a private institution told her that "if erosion lasts three times, it will become cancerous if it is not treated." She spent thousands of dollars on physical therapy and she still didn't feel better. In fact, this term was kicked out of the catalog of gynecological diseases as early as 2008. It is now called "cervical columnar epithelial ectopia". The essence is that young women have high estrogen levels and the columnar epithelium in the cervical canal moves to the outside. It looks red and rotten. In fact, it is a normal physiological phenomenon and does not require any treatment. Of course, here is a reminder from the academic community: the early appearance of cervical lesions looks almost the same as "erosion", so it is necessary to do TCT+HPV screening once a year after having sex. If there is no problem, you can follow up with a check-up every 2-3 years. Don't save this money, it can reduce the risk of cervical cancer to almost zero.

Many people also ask about the relationship between diet and gynecological problems. The most controversial ones are "Will drinking soy milk supplement estrogen and grow uterine fibroids" and "Can I drink ice when I come to my aunt?" In fact, there is no absolute unified conclusion on these two issues: Regarding soy milk, the mainstream academic circles believe that the activity of soy isoflavones is only one thousandth of human estrogen. Drinking a cup of 300ml of soy milk a day will not affect hormone levels at all. On the contrary, some health products called "ovary maintenance" and "reverse growth" secretly add a large amount of artificial estrogens, which are the hardest hit areas that cause fibroids and endometrium thickening. I have met a 42-year-old sister before who took such health products for half a year and found out that her endometrium was so thick that she needed to have a uterine curettage. ； As for whether you can touch ice during your period, it all depends on your personal physique. Some people come to nibble on popsicles without any problems, while some people break into cold sweats after drinking half a cup of cold milk tea. You don’t have to follow other people’s standards. You can drink it yourself and be comfortable.

To talk about an interesting little detail, I also encountered a patient who heard the anchor say that "underwear must be boiled in boiling water for 5 minutes to sterilize". He boiled the underwear every day and boiled the pure cotton fabric until it was hard. After wearing it for a week, the vulva was red and swollen, so he came to register. In fact, daily care really doesn’t have to be so extreme: just choose pure cotton and loose underwear. Change it and wash it the same day. Don’t throw it into the washing machine with socks. After washing, dry it in a ventilated and sunny place. If it can’t be dried on rainy days, just blow it through with a hair dryer. Unless you are suffering from fungal vaginitis, you need to boil your underwear occasionally to disinfect it. Usually, it is not worth the effort. Also, don’t wait until the towels are full before changing them. Change them every 1-2 hours when the towels are heavy, and don’t change them more than 4 hours when the towels are small. Hot and humid environments are the favorite breeding ground for bacteria.

If you really feel uncomfortable, don't search randomly on Baidu. I have seen too many patients frighten themselves after searching, thinking that yellow leucorrhea means they have a terminal illness. In fact, it only costs a few dozen yuan to go to the hospital to check for leucorrhea. The results are obtained quickly, and symptoms can basically be improved after a week of medication. There is really nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to gynecological problems. Just like a cold or a fever, it is a very common physical discomfort. Don’t drag it into chronic inflammation and suffer the consequences instead. If possible, try to get the HPV vaccine. There is no need to wait for the nine-price vaccine. The two-price and four-price vaccines can cover more than 80% of high-risk cancer-causing HPV. The sooner you get vaccinated, the better the protection effect.