You don't like how you smell down there? No problem.

The biology, the fixes, and what you can stop blaming yourself for.

You’re not supposed to smell like roses down there. Not candy. Not vanilla. Not even Calvin Klein’s CK One.

You’re supposed to smell like you, and somewhere along the way, nobody told you that, so now you’re spiraling.

Let’s fix that.

Here's what I know: your body has a scent. It changes with your cycle, with what you eat, with how stressed you are, with whether you've been drinking enough water.

That's just your body doing its job, keeping itself balanced, communicating with you, running the whole operation without you having to think about it. The problem isn't the smell. The problem is that nobody ever taught us how to read it. So we panic, we reach for the scented wash, we make it worse, and then we feel worse about ourselves. I've been there. Most of us have.

So here's what's actually going on and what you can do about it.

Go commando at night.

Your body needs to breathe. Wearing underwear to bed traps heat and moisture, and moisture is where problems start. Same rule applies right after a shower, if things are still damp, don’t put underwear on yet. Either dry it with a towel, use a blow dryer ON COOL, or just wait. Let everything air out. It sounds small, but it makes a huge difference.

Drink more water. A lot more.

Dehydration concentrates everything. EVERYTHING, including your body’s natural scent. It doesn’t make you smell bad, exactly. It just makes you smell louder. Someone my size needs eleven cups a day. Start there and adjust from there. That’s the easiest thing you can do to smell more like you!

Warm water only, once a day.

Clean under the hood with warm water, especially after sweating. That’s it. Got a good sweat on at the gym, warm water under the hood. You were hot and sweaty all day, warm water under the hood.

No soap required and definitely no scented body wash. Your vaginal skin is as sensitive as the inside of your mouth. The second it starts to feel stripped or irritated, you’ve gone too far. And the thing is, we’re marketed so many scented products to smell “nice” down there, but scented products disrupt your pH, and a disrupted pH is what actually causes odor problems. So you’re really not fixing anything by reaching for scented soaps. As soon as the skin feels like the inside of your mouth, warm water ONLY. You don’t rinse your mouth out with soap, do you? Same thing applies down there.

Start taking probiotics.

Interesting fact: gut health and vaginal health are connected. The same good bacteria that keep your gut balanced help keep your vaginal microbiome balanced too. If you’re not already taking a probiotic, this is worth trying. More specifically, probiotics that include:

Lactobacillus rhamnosus (GR-1), Lactobacillus reuteri (RC-14), and Lactobacillus crispatus.

I really like this one.

Watch the garlic and onion.

This one is annoying, because garlic and onion are delicious and they belong in everything. I love them. But if your body is sensitive to them, they will make your scent stronger. Not wrong. Just stronger. But you decide if the trade-off is worth it. (For me, onion and I have had a falling out anyway, so.)

If something smells genuinely off? Boric acid.

Not different-than-usual. Not stronger. But truly off, like your body is telling you something’s wrong, boric acid suppositories. Use them at night with a liner, please! By morning, you’ll notice a difference. But you’ll also realize why you needed a liner in the first place. This isn’t a daily thing. It’s for when something’s actually shifted. I use boric acid right after my period, once. Quick and easy.

None of this was explained to me growing up. I had to figure it out the slow, embarrassing way and I don’t think you should have to.

Your body isn’t a problem.

-S