Vaginal Health for Sex Workers: Beyond STI Screening
Vaginal Health for Sex Workers: Understanding the vaginal microbiome, recurrent symptoms and intimate health in the context of sexual activity and work. Vaginal Health for Sex workers is about much more than sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For people working in the sex industry, including escorts, adult content creators and performers, sexual activity may involve aContinue Reading
Recurrent Thrush and the Gut Microbiome
Recurrent Thrush and the Gut Microbiome: What Did Our Research Find? One of the smaller but interesting parts of my PhD research was looking beyond the vaginal microbiome to ask what was happening in the gut microbiome of people with recurrent thrush/ vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) using fluconazole. In our published pilot study, we compared bothContinue Reading
Recurrent Thrush: Why Does Thrush Keep Coming Back
Understanding recurrent thrush Recurrent vaginal thrush can be physically uncomfortable, emotionally exhausting and deeply frustrating. Many people arrive at Intimate Ecology after months, or even years, of repeated antifungal treatment, only to find their symptoms return again and again. If you’ve found yourself asking, “Why does this keep happening?”, you’re not alone. For many years,Continue Reading
Mother hen: Barrier Methods
Mother hen here: Barrier Methods This week in clinic I found myself having a very “mother hen: Barrier methods” conversation with a few clients. Not in a condescending way. More in a: “I care about you, your body, your microbiome, and the effort you are going to here” kind of way. Because if someone isContinue Reading
Reproductive Microbiome & Fertility
Reproductive Microbiomes and Fertility Why Microbial Health Matters Before Conception and IVF When people think about preparing for pregnancy, the focus is often on hormones, ovulation, egg quality, sperm health, supplements, and timing. But there’s another piece of the puzzle that is increasingly gaining attention in reproductive medicine: The reproductive microbiomes and fertility… Research continuesContinue Reading
Vaginal Microbiome Testing
Vaginal Microbiome Testing: What It Is and How We Use It at Intimate Ecology At Intimate Ecology, we often use vaginal microbiome testing to gain deeper insight into vaginal health, particularly in people who feel like they’ve exhausted standard pathways without finding answers. Many of the people who come to our clinic have already beenContinue Reading