Women’s health can be affected by many external influences, including social and environmental determinants. With proper tools and knowledge, however, they can take control of their own wellbeing and manage it more effectively.
Good feminine hygiene practices such as using pH balancing soap to wash with, wiping from front to back wiping and avoiding scented pads or tampons can help prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Period panties also offer additional protection during menstruation.
Hygiene
Hygiene refers to the practice of maintaining oneself so as to prevent infection from taking hold. This encompasses activities like bathing, handwashing, wearing clean clothing and grooming as well as caring for one’s vagina and vulvae for female reproductive systems.
Most participants reported engaging in diverse vaginal/genital health and hygiene behaviors, such as using commercially produced and homemade natural/naturopathic products and engaging in practices like douching, anti-itch creams, douches, moisturizers/lubricants, feminine wipes, washes, tablet suppositories spray powder and shaving to control pubic hair growth. Furthermore, several associations were noted between specific intimate hygiene products and adverse vulvar/genital health conditions.
Your vulva does not need to be washed with soaps and feminine hygiene products regularly despite decades of misleading advertising; your body produces discharge that helps flush away harmful bacteria and dead cells naturally. Daily gentle vulvar cleaning in the shower with a pH-balanced cleanser is recommended.
Diet
“What you eat shapes who you are,” has long been held to be true; yet recent evidence demonstrates how your diet directly affects your physical wellbeing as well.
Your vagina relies on good bacteria, natural secretions and your immune system for health, so changing your diet to include probiotics, prebiotics and fermented foods may help strengthen its natural defenses.
Avoid animal products containing hormones (xenoestrogens) as these can affect your natural hormone balance and cause health problems.
Finally, drinking enough water is key for staying hydrated and lubricated – this will reduce your risk of yeast infections and urinary tract infections, while adding cranberries into your diet for added protection can prevent bacteria from sticking to bladder walls. These simple changes can have an enormous impact on feminine health!
Exercise
Exercise programs designed specifically to meet women’s needs can significantly boost hormone regulation and overall health; however, women are sometimes reluctant to engage in rigorous levels of physical activity due to concerns over their bodies and time constraints imposed by exercising with male peers or gender-based restrictions on time for physical activity.
FIF curriculum incorporates exercises designed to assist participants in discovering their barriers and creating strategies they can implement outside of sessions. Furthermore, participants are asked to explore their attitudes and expectations related to female gender role expectations and physical activity – this helps facilitate greater maintenance of new exercise routines after completion of the program.
Mood and Mental Health
Women’s sexual hormones, specifically estrogen, can drastically change their emotions and mindset. Hormonal shifts occur naturally throughout life but may be further intensified by stress, illness or pregnancy – hormonal imbalances may even result in mental health problems.
Mood can be defined as an overall state of emotional well-being influenced by fatigue, social interactions, world events and health. A mood disorder is defined as any severe emotional disturbance characterized by periods of extreme sadness (depression) or extreme joy (mania). Depression increases risk for suicide.
Depression and anxiety disorders in women can be difficult to identify and treat, with female internalization often making them more vulnerable than their male counterparts. Women tend to internalize emotions rather than discuss them openly with others, leaving them more susceptible to these illnesses and more at risk for perinatal depression, postpartum depression, premenstrual syndrome, premenopausal depression as well as premenopausal transition-related depression due to hormonal fluctuations during puberty, menstruation or transition periods which can trigger different symptoms leading to either depression or anxiety or both conditions.
