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13 Daily Habits that are Bad for Your Reproductive Health
As women, our reproductive health is not just important, it is a bit sensitive and we should do all within our powers to protect it. This is because a little mistake can be the difference between having a reproductive system that functions as it should and one that would need some assistance to carry out its functions.
When I was trying to get pregnant for my second child, I experienced some delay and this came as a surprise as I’d conceived pretty fast for my daughter; barely two months into the marriage. I tried actively for two years, before I finally overcame this hurdle.
A lot of women find themselves at this point through one or more seemingly innocent daily habits that were carried out at one point or the other in their lives.
Here are seven of such daily or common habits that can have such profound and sometimes lasting impact on our reproductive health:
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1.Washing Your Coochie with Soap
While every woman desires a clean coochie, choosing to wash with soap is actually dangerous and could pose some problems to your reproductive health much later.
The vaginal contains a natural flora of bacteria, which coexist to keep you healthy and free of infections down there. However, when you wash with soap, you disrupt this natural order of things as not just the bad guys, but the good bacteria (lactobacilli) get killed as well, leaving you prone to infections, including regular yeast outbreaks.
Your coochie is actually self-cleaning and can keep itself clean. It does this through the periodical secretion of a clear, white discharge and therefore, requires no further assistance.
Healthcare practitioners strongly recommend sticking with this, but if you must clean, you should do so using a non-cented soap and avoid antiseptic soaps as much as possible.
2.Carrying Out Regular or Periodical Douching
Douching is a process of deep-cleaning the coochie. Women who douch do so with the intention of cleaning their vajayjay and use a store-bought or locally made douch (made from water and vinegar) to do so.
The douch is sprayed into the coochie using a tube and just like when you washing with soap, ends up killing both the bad and the good bacteria that protect it, leaving you vulnerable to infections.
The verdict on douching is to avoid it completely and to wash using just water. While douching might seem like it keeps you clean, its many long-term disadvantages far outweigh that initial benefit. For one, douching increases your risk of infections like bacterial vaginosis and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (this by up to 73%).
Research has also found some links between douching and difficulty getting pregnant, including ectopic pregnancies.
3.Sharing Undies
As crazy as this sounds, it does happen, and this amongst girls that share an enclosed space or ones who have become close friends over time.
Besides this being an awful practice, it also leaves you exposed to whatever infection the other person might have. Even when these undies are washed, some microbes could survive and get transferred into you to start a process of havoc that might not become noticeable until you start trying to conceive.
4.Using a Pad for Too Long
Another habit that’s bad for your health is wearing a pad or tampon for too long. No matter how light your flow, it is recommended you never wear a pad for longer than 6-8 hours as doing so leaves you susceptible to lingering bad odour, infection and in extreme cases, toxic shock syndrome (a health condition characterized by fever, low blood pressure respiratory disorder and kidney issues or failure).
Toxic shock syndrome could be fatal, especially if left untreated as it affects the liver and other key organs, which start to fail. Symptoms you can expect to get with toxic shock include seizures, bleeding, and heart failure.
5.Failing to Pee Right After the ‘Do’
During intercourse there’s a high possible of bacteria being retained in your urethra and these finding their way into your reproductive system, leading to a urinary tract infection.
When you pee right after intercourse, you eliminate this bacteria, reducing your risk of an infection.
Peeing just before sexual intercourse is also considered bad for your reproductive health since it reduces the urge to do so right after, leading to these bacteria remaining for longer.
Related: How To Get Pregnant Fast (9 Tips For Success)
6.Wearing Very Tight Jeans
While wearing tight clothes, especially smug fitting jeans might be fashionably and make you look super chic, they really aren’t healthy for your reproductive health.
Tight jeans increases the heat in your groin region, leaving you prone to yeast or fungal infections, urinary tract infection as well as endometriosis.
Bacteria and other microbes love moist regions and have a field time reproducing in such an environment. By constantly wearing tight jeans, you are creating such an environment and increasing your risk of infections.
7.Not Using a Condom
Being on the pills might be a good way to keep unwanted pregnancy away, but it usually isn’t enough to keep STIs away.
While you are sure of your sexual history, you can never be a hundred percent so of your partner’s and choosing to use a condom might save you a whole lot of troubles.
8.Not Carrying Out a Regular Fertility Cleanse
Each day, as we interact with the environment, we pick up toxins that negatively impact us in more ways than one. Most women also snack on the go, and if you are one with a sweet tooth, then taking in too much sugar might affect your egg quality and maturation
While our bodies can naturally clean out toxins, if it gets way too much of this, it would have a much harder time to eliminating them.
This is why women who are trying to conceive are strongly advised to carry out a fertility cleanse regularly as this toxin overload negatively impacts conception or gets passed from the mother to the baby in vitro when conception does take place.
There are a few methods you can adopt to cleanse your system and these include drinking lemon water, eating a fertility diet, making use of fertility herbs like dandelion, flaxseed, and milk thistle, carrying out a fertility massage or undergoing a castor oil therapy.
9.Failing to Thoroughly Clean Your Undies Periodically
Washing your undies daily is strongly encouraged, however, some health experts are of the opinion daily washing might not be enough to completely eliminate the bacteria as some survive the daily washing. Which is why it is recommended women also carry out regular (as often as monthly) sun-drying to kill off all pathogens completely.
10.Wiping from Back to Front
This is one of the daily habits that won’t just harm your reproductive system, but will bring about a lot of discomfort and pain from while at it. The proper way to wipe for a woman is from front to back and not back to front to prevent bacteria and other pathogens moving from your rectum into your coochie.
11.Wearing Wet Undies
You might have a favourite pair of undies and need it for that special occasion, but if it washed and not quite dry, you might want to keep off wearing it. This is because as earlier mentioned most pathogens need a moist environment to replicate and your wet undies would produce just that enabling environment.
Read Also: 20 Best Positions To Get Pregnant
12.Sleeping with Undies
There are a lot of benefits to sleeping commando at night and one of these is that it gives your vajayjay the room to breathe. Since much heat or moist encourages the reproduction of harmful bacteria and in the same vein, an aired out vajayjay would have less of this opportunity.
13.Failing to Exercise
Lastly, failing to exercise regularly is bad for your health and heart. You should work out an exercise plan that’s great for you and start out small until your body gets used to it.
The benefits of these daily habits whether carried out daily or regularly are instantaneous and your health will thank you for it, 20 daily habits that are bad for your reproductive health.
Daily Habits to Adopt Instead
If the above daily habits are bad, what habits then promotes optimal reproductive health?
Here are some you should be practicing instead:
1.Try to get enough rest and sleep. The recommended hours of sleep every adult should get each night is eight hours and above.
2.Eat healthily, including a lot of nutrients known for improving fertility in your diet.
3.You want to opt for cotton undies as these are breathable, allowing your woman part to get as much air as is needed.
4. Limit sweets and other sugary treats as much as you can.
5.Go for regular checkups and screening
6. Practising safe sex is yet another daily habit to keep you healthy.
7. Exercise regularly. Fitness experts recommend exercising for at least 30 minutes 3 -4 times a week.
8.Practice relaxation techniques like yoga that help reduce stress, which has been known to affect your chances when trying to get pregnant
Tags: daily habits to improve your reproductive health, daily habits that are bad for your reproductive health, 15 daily habits to avoid
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