Why you should pay attention to your vagina

culled from:pulse.ng

We wax, pluck, scrub, and spray in attempts to maintain appearance or smell.

We put our ladybits through ridiculous routines and insert things in them that definitely do not belong.

At the end of the day, your vagina would still give you a knock on the head if it had a chance.

What some women may not understand is that the vagina is extremely sensitive to some of these customs.

It's all fun and games until you make your vagina super-angry and you're curled up in a ball wishing you'd never treated her poorly.

Sure, she's high-maintenance and may require a little TLC now and again, but you only have one vagina.

So, learn how to treat her right!

Here are 8 things your vagina desperately wants you to know.

1.Do not use soap to clean

Ladies, you want to keep her clean, but using soap is NOT the way to do that. Yes, it's okay to use mild soap on the outside but lathering your labia is a big no no.

Soap creates a pH imbalance and leads to all kinds of infections that scratching certainly won't help. Screaming for the pain to stop? Eh, that might work.

Studies reveal that "the vagina is a self-cleaning oven." You don't need anything fancy to clean yourself; all you really need is some warm water in the shower or bath and your vagina will do the rest.

Don't stress her out by making her susceptible to infections.

2. Shaving

You give yourself crazy bumps and ingrown hairs when you use that razor, but you do it anyway.

Shaving and waxing make your vagina feel smoother, look cleaner, and won't completely gross out your OB/GYN.

You'll also decrease the amount of bacteria and lice in your pubes, but how many ingrown hairs do you need to get before you realize what you're doing?

All those nasty things creeping in your pubic hair travel right down inside your vagina, since there's no barrier holding it back.

Use a razor with rust or built-up bacteria on it and you set yourself up for staph or molluscum. Neither of which are the even least amount of fun.

Unless you want to itch your vagina ALL DAY, put down the razor! Use a trimmer instead, yeesh.

3. Scented tampons

Some consider tampons themselves to be dangerous because of the long-term effects and the chemicals used in production.

Dioxins, which are linked to cancer, are in tampons as well as most of the food we consume. There's also Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), a deadly consequence of leaving your tampon in for too long or using them too frequently.

So whether or not you choose to wear tampons, please don't use scented.

They're not only bad for you, but pretty much pointless. Actually, you might just want to stay away from anything scented that you put on or near your genitals.

4. Douche, ouch!

Maybe you feel like you can make yourself super-clean downstairs by douching but you're actually causing more damage than you think.

According to Lauren Streicher, an OB/GYN and clinical professor, "douching promotes the growth of bacteria and may increase your risk of pelvic inflammatory disease by transporting chlamydia or gonorrhea up into the uterus. In addition, vinegar and betadyne in douches can dry vaginal walls and increase inflammation."

Essentially, you're covering up your problems with a douche.

Are you remembering to wipe front to back? Are you showering regularly? If you're really concerned for your vagina's cleanliness, seek medical attention that is not a stream of vinegar you shoot into yourself.

5. Exercise

Over time, your pelvic floor weakens from childbirth, weight gain, and aging.

According to Healthline, "The pelvic floor muscles support the womb, the bladder, and the bowels. If the muscles are weak, these pelvic organs may lower into a woman's vagina.

Besides being extremely uncomfortable, this can also cause urinary incontinence."

That's where kegel exercises come in. Just like you work out the other muscles in your body, kegels are exercise for your insides.

You can do them just about anywhere: on a plane, on a train, in a house, with a mouse ... you get the point.