Understanding recurrent vaginal and urinary symptoms through the lens of ecology
A free evidence-informed guide for making sense of recurrent thrush, BV and other persistent or recurring vaginal symptoms.
- Treatment can work.
- Tests can come back normal.
- A microbe can disappear.
- And yet sometimes, the story doesn't end there.
When symptoms persist or patterns return, the next useful question may not only be:
“What should we treat?”
It may also be:
“Why has this vaginal environment become vulnerable in the first place?”
That's where ecology comes in.
A DIFFERENT WAY TO THINK ABOUT RECURRENCE
Vaginal health doesn't exist in isolation.
Hormones, immune function, life stage, sexual health, medications, the gut and vaginal microbiomes and the relationships between them, can all influence the environment in which symptoms occur.
Understanding recurrence isn't necessarily about finding one more thing to treat.
Sometimes it's about learning to see how the pieces fit together.
INSIDE THE FREE GUIDE, YOU'LL EXPLORE:
- Why symptoms can return even when a treatment appeared to work
- Why the same diagnosis and even the same treatment, can lead to very different experiences
- Five important influences on vaginal ecology, including hormones, immune function, sexual factors, the gut microbiome and everyday health factors
- Why finding a microbe doesn't necessarily tell us the whole story
- What laboratory and microbiome testing can tell us and some of the important things it can't
- Why your history and the pattern of your symptoms matter alongside a test result
- Questions that can help uncover patterns that testing alone may miss
- A different way to think about recurrence: not simply “What infection do I have?” but “What else might be influencing this ecology?”
This isn't a treatment protocol.
You won't find another list of supplements, probiotics or things to eliminate.
Instead, Why Won't It Go Away? will help you step back from the individual microbe and begin looking at the bigger picture, so you can ask better questions about what might be contributing to a recurring pattern.
THE MICROBIOME IS PART OF THE STORY
Microbiome testing can give us valuable information.
But the microbiome is the footprint of the ecosystem.
It is not the ecosystem itself.
A microbe doesn't exist in isolation from the person in whom we find it.
That's why one of the ideas at the heart of Intimate Ecology is:
Context gives microbes their meaning.
This guide will show you what we mean.
ABOUT INTIMATE ECOLOGY
Specialised thinking for complex intimate health.
Intimate Ecology is an Australian online naturopathic clinic and education practice specialising in vaginal, urinary and genitourinary health.
Led by naturopath, researcher and educator Dr Moira Bradfield-Strydom (PhD), our team of naturopathic clinicians works with people experiencing recurrent and complex intimate health concerns.
Our approach looks beyond a symptom, organism or test result in isolation to consider the broader ecology in which it exists, including hormones, immune function, life stage, medications, sexual health, the gut and vaginal microbiomes, and, importantly, the individual sitting in front of us.
Moira brings more than 25 years of clinical experience to Intimate Ecology. Her PhD research investigated recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis, including the vaginal and gut microbiomes and the lived experience of recurrent symptoms.
That research informed, ecological way of thinking sits at the heart of the Intimate Ecology clinical team.
START WITH THE FREE GUIDE
Why Won't It Go Away?
Begin with a different way of thinking about recurrent genitourinary health issues.