7 Tips for Vulvovaginal Health Over the Holidays
By Taylor Neal
The hot weather and the holiday season is upon us!
This time of year brings lots of excitement, social engagement, days filled with sunshine and laughter, and lots of decadent foods and drinks, in the place of our regular daily and weekly routines.
What a beautiful thing it is, to indulge in the treats and quality time with loved ones we get to experience this time of year. But with so much excitement and disruption to our regular routines, it can be quite easy to become a bit lax around our self care and body-based practices that support our ability to show up healthy and well through it all.
How Can Summer Impact My Vulvovaginal Health?
Let’s be real, for people with vulvas, the holiday season and summer in general, can quite easily throw our bodies out of whack.
Excess sugar, more alcohol, less sleep, more ocean time, more sweat, less routine, longer days with more engagements, less time; all of these things can contribute to throwing off our vulvar health.
Some of the main ways that summer can impact your vulvovaginal health:
Sweating: When the hot/humid weather is causing us to sweat more on a daily basis, a warm, moist environment can grow. This contributes to increased growth of bacteria and yeast, which can contribute to infections such as Thrush and BV.
Clothing: Wearing tight clothing such as cycling shorts and activewear, wet bathing suits, or other non-breathable fabrics for elongated periods of time can throw off the vulva’s natural pH levels due to increased moisture, sweat, and body unsafe fabrics interacting with the genitals.
Dehydration: If we’re out and about, doing activities that cause us to sweat or just spending time in the heat, or drinking more alcohol than usual, we’re at greater risk of becoming dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to general skin and body dryness, including vaginal dryness which can cause discomfort.
Chemicals: Swimming in chlorinated pools or spas, using sunscreen or other body lotions, shaving creams and hair removal processes, and so many more summer activities bring with them additional chemicals that can throw off our vulva’s natural pH.
Sex: It’s common that people have more sex around the holidays. Due to vacation time, the heightened emotions of the season, the alcohol and social engagements, and lots of other factors, we might find ourselves more in the mood this time of year.
So there are lots of things to consider that come with summer and the holidays for the vulva beings out there, but this doesn’t mean I’m here to take your fun away.
You can absolutely still do all the wonderful summer things, the invitation is to just bring a little more vulvar awareness into your holiday season.
Tips for Holiday Vulvovaginal Health
I’ve compiled our top 7 tips for maintaining vulvovaginal health through the holiday season, to support you in being able to show up to all the fun things as your sparkly self, without the stress of dealing with discomfort down there.
1. Opt for Loose Body-Safe Clothing
I know you’ve been planning your holiday outfits for months, so don’t feel like you have to change your perfectly planned look to save your vulva if you don’t want to. However, what I’d suggest is to opt for loose-fitting, breathable body-safe clothing and fabrics whenever possible outside of the events.
Spending as much time as possible not wearing underwear around the house, sleeping naked or in loose pyjamas, and fabrics such as organic cotton, bamboo cotton, linen, and other natural fibres, will help your vulva breathe and restore some balance between social engagements.
2. Stay Fresh Throughout the Day
We tend to shower more when it’s hot anyway, but it can be useful to carry things to support your vulvovaginal health with you as you go from one engagement to the next. Having an extra pair of underwear with you can be great for those long sweaty days in the sun, and specifically underwear made from body-safe fabrics (100% cotton and natural fibres).
There are also many brands that offer body-safe, all natural salves and personal care products like this one to support the natural pH of the vulva and ease any irritation, itching, dryness or discomfort.
3. Water-Only Showers
Speaking of showering more, with the hot weather and sweating, we can feel inclined to want to scrub our bodies, including our vulvas, with soap, multiple times a day. Contrary to our beliefs, using too much soap too frequently on our vulvas can actually impact our vulvovaginal pH as well.
The vulva is a self-cleaning miracle machine, so we really don’t need to use soap at all on our vulvas when we shower in general. But especially when we’re wanting to shower more than normal during the summertime, we want to opt for water-only showers, and ideally colder water showers as well, more often than full body scrubbing sessions.
4. Refrain from Lounging in Swimwear
As mentioned, what we’re wearing can have a major impact on our vulvovaginal health, and wet swimwear is one of the main culprits when it comes to throwing vulvar pH off during the summer season.
If you’re like me and you love long days on the beach that turn into casual patio drinks by the ocean, you know that it’s super easy to end up wearing your swimsuit for hours at a time. Again, sitting in moist, tight, non-breathable fabrics for long periods of time can foster the types of warm, moist environments bacteria and yeast absolutely love. And we don’t love that.
To avoid infections like BV (bacterial vaginosis) and thrush, bring a second swimsuit or a swimsuit cover-up when you go to the beach, and change out of your wet swimwear if you’re planning to stay a while.
5. Be Sugar Conscious
All of the sugar and alcohol over the holidays may seem like a good idea at the time, and I’m not here to tell you not to indulge. But it’s important to be mindful that having more sugar in your system creates an ideal breading ground for yeast, which can cause thrush and other infections.
To enjoy the holiday treats and maintain vulvovaginal health, opt for sugar-free options where possible, and find extra detox support in things like lemon water, ginger, turmeric, green tea, dandelion root, nettle, liquorice, or garlic.
6. Intentional Night-time Routines
Our night-time routines are a great opportunity to get some of our self-care organised for the next day and spend some time tending to our bodies. To support dehydration, ensure lots of hydration before bed by drinking a large glass of lemon water, and ensuring you have water beside your bed at night. You might also like to do some vulvar massage or self touch, to relax and soothe your body if you’ve been in tight clothing all day.
Further, sleeping naked or without underwear will also support your vulvar health by allowing the area to breathe after long, sweaty days.
7. Aftercare & Lube
Last but not least, if we are having more sex over the holidays, it’s important to be extra intentional about your aftercare and what products you’re using.
With everything else bringing complications, dehydration, and moisture to our vulvovaginal health this time of year, opting for body-safe lubricant will be a game changer for your sex life. I’d highly recommend using water-based lubricants made with all-natural ingredients such as this one that are hypoallergenic and aligned with the body’s natural pH.
In terms of aftercare, having a cool or cold water-only shower after sex (with or without your partner) can be a great way to cool the body down and remain sensual and connected.
Happy holidays to you and your vulvas! Stay cool, hydrated, and breathing this season.