Having white discharge is a very normal occurrence. If you have white discharge on certain days of the month, it is nothing to be concerned about and is in fact an indication of good vaginal health. You may also experience excess vaginal discharge if you are on birth control pills or pregnant or your menstrual cycle is around the corner. All this is completely normal.1
Excess amount of white discharge, if it’s on all days of the month, and especially if accompanied by a bad smell, itching and/or burning, may be a sign of something serious and should not be ignored! Some common infections with white, slightly yellowish, or even creamy discharge include vaginal yeast infections, vaginitis, bacterial vaginosis and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). These infections are often accompanied by other symptoms like foul odour, burning, itching, clumpy discharge and so on. Whereas, yellow or green vaginal discharge along with thick, chunky and foul odour may signify a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI).2 In that case, you must consider taking medical advice from your healthcare professional. Diagnosis and treatment of these infections is quite simple, and can usually be treated with a simple course of antifungal or antibiotic medicines like Clingen Forte, Miconazole and metronidazole and so on.
In fact, in order to prevent vaginal infections from occurring, you should work to maintain a vaginal pH close to 5.2 which helps disease fighting bacteria to flourish! Maintaining a good vaginal pH is important to have healthy vaginal discharge. A healthy pH means you have a good population of healthy bacteria in the vaginal (genital) area, which actually help to prevent infections.3
There are some natural ways in which you can build up your immunity against vaginal infections. None of these are based on scientific studies but even doctors generally tend to advise, for example, consuming foods rich in probiotics such as yogurt (curd). The reason being, probiotics contain live good bacteria called Lactobacillus acidophilus. This bacteria is also present in the vagina along with bad bacteria. Lactobacillus acidophilus in the vagina works towards keeping the vagina healthy and its environment healthy by taking care of bacterial imbalance.4
