Apart from preventing unwanted pregnancies and spread of sexually transmitted diseases, condoms may help good bacteria in the vagina flourish, a new study has found.
Sexually active women in the study who used condoms
had larger colonies of beneficial microbes in their vaginas compared
with women who used other forms of birth control, the researchers at
Beijing Friendship Hospital found.
The scientists focused on lactobacillus, a group of bacteria that dominates the natural flora of the vagina for many women.
The microbes, which produce lactic acid and hydrogen
peroxide, help the vagina maintain an average pH of 4.5, comparable to
the acidity of beer or tomato juice, the Huffington Post reported.
This “acidic buffer system,” as the researchers
called it, is thought to block harmful bacteria from taking up residence
and causing infections.
Though there may not be a “normal” microbiome for a healthy vagina,
the presence of lactobacillus is thought to help prevent bacterial
vaginosis, which is an imbalance of vaginal bacteria that causes
itching, unusual discharge and unpleasant odor.Beneficial bacteria have even been linked to a decreased risk of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) infection.
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