To ask if your bits smell?

[BobVanceVanceRefridgeration]

NC for very obvious reasons! This is inspired by another thread on personal hygiene that made me a little concerned

I wanted to understand if I potentially have a problem with my hygiene and if I need to do something about it!

Let me paint a scenario for you

-you get up in the morning and go through your usual routine (for me, shower, wash everywhere with shower gel, dry off, make up, brush teeth, hair, dressed)

-you then go through a normal day...no physical exercise or anything that makes you overly sweat

-go to bed. For me, I don't shower pre bed, just wash face, teeth etc then where pants to bed overnight.

-the next morning... so 24 hours after your shower and before you've got up again, your DH/partner initiates sex with foreplay.

What do you do?

For me, I would get up and go and have a little wash and freshen up if I thought this was on the cards. After 24 hours, I do have an odour and smell which would be unpleasant and concern me.

Is it normal to have a fishy unpleasant odour in the above scenario? I thought it was but now I'm wondering if it is!

....hiding behind the sofa from embarrassment...

Fishy is never normal.

It's designed for intimate care! I don't put it in my vagina but I wash all of my intimate areas. The PH for it is the right balance for intimate care.

I literally get thrush or UTI or BV if I use other soap I'm so confused by this?

Same. Using normal bar soap makes me smell fishy.

Yes I think it's more acidic then other soaps.

When you are too alkaline in your intimate area you can smell fishy, it makes the balance out of your PH and then you get BV

Unless the face wash is maybe very acidic

I'll try find you some official info hang on x

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8618584/

Info on Ph and BV

www.allure.com/story/ph-balance-skin-care-products/amp

So it seems here that the skin on the rest of the body is less acidic and at the higher end of the range towards alkaline as opposed to the lower range in the intimate area

Hope this info is helpful x

Going to be really blunt. Lesbian here. Nobody smells like roses after 24 hours, regardless if you've not been jogging or overtly sweaty. Normal life and a night in bed won't leave you shower fresh. If it's just a bit whiffy, like in the way many people's armpits would whiff after that timescale, don't stress about it. Or have a shower at night or first thing if you're worried.

If it's an offensive smell beyond 'I really need a shower' see a doctor maybe. But it's likely it's a regular '24 hours worth of life' shower.

I don't think many people would want to go down on someone 24 hours after their last shower.

Finally, what's with all the 'don't use soap on your vulva?' I think lots of people have been confused that you don't need to (and shouldn't) lather up your vagina. Your actual outer genitals of course need a wash with soap, the same as pits of feet or other smelly bits. Just washing water over the area isn't going to do much. There's a big difference between not pushing soap anywhere it's going to sting, and soaping up and gently washing your general pubic region!

@cultkid thanks ill check those out.

I really do appreciate all of the responses and thank you for not making me feel embarrassed!

So I do think this is a smell I've always had and not something that comes and goes and I have no other symptoms of BV. But I will sniff more closely tonight and tomorrow and see if it really is 'fishy' or something else

What doesn't help is I have a slight urine leak overnight as an 6 months pp so this may be confusing things

Interesting about washing bits and different techniques. If I just washed with water I would definitely still smell so so need something more.

I'll have a proper read now on some of the links

I get BV from time to time and I hate it. It’s more common for me after being intimate. You can buy BV gel from the pharmacy as soon as I detect it I use one before bed and goes.

It will be the urine leak 100%

Are you doing kegals to try help?

Intimate areas and front bottoms really wind me up! Use proper words for the love of God!

And yes, use soap in your pubic area and around your anus. Just don't wash your actual vagina with soap. Your vagina is self cleaning. The rest isn't! Unscented soap if you're worried.

I can’t believe how many people use soap or anything on their bits. I’ve always just used water (was taught this early on in school) and I’ve never had thrush.

For reference (people may think I’m minging lol) but I often bathe every 2 days and it’s not fishy. Not saying it smells like coconuts and flowers but I never get a waft of myself or to the point of insecurity about it. E.g. I’m usually never self conscious enough to need to freshen up before on day 2 either if sex is on the table (but will wash after). Obviously I would if I was expecting oral but yeah.

From my experience vaginal scent is normal but fishy smell isn’t at all.

I use Elemis Sensitive Cleansing Wash and its gentle enough for the full body.

Another smelly fanny thread 🙄

Question for those using products for “smell”, what do you expect/want your vulva to smell like?

I’ve never had thrush

I use bar soap or shower gel and I've never had thrush either. Using just water would not leave me feeling clean.

A lush Summer meadow at the crack of dawn, pink candyfloss, rainbows and fluffy white clouds...

What’s BV?

Of course your warm, bacteria filled, moist vaginal crevices will smell after 24 hours of no washing! It doesn't mean there is a problem but it would be weird and impossible if they didn't!

’Yes’ do a vaginal wash, including an unscented version. It’s super-gentle. Well worth the money:

Here

In your scenario, if my partner hadn’t showered either and I just had a normal 24hrs without sweating, etc, I wouldn’t bother to shower but I’d pop to the loo and have a quick wash with the above.

This is totally TMI but I guess that's the nature of this thread. I asked my husband and he just shrugged and said 'I like how you taste'.

I suspect he is not alone in being a man who is not at all 'bothered' so long as sex happens 😆

Sounds like Dawn’s crack smells amazing!

I top and tail twice daily. I just put the shower head on my vulva and gently wash.

I don't use soap on my vulva.

My scent is peaches or oranges depending on the time of the month.

I'm pregnant at the moment so more oranges than peaches.

I prefer to wash before sex too (unscented simple gel as I find anything with a scent tends to mix with your natural oder and actually produce a weird fishy smell)

I also use a vaginal probiotic like canesfloor maybe every 6 months which seems to keep everything that bit nicer !

OP, I always wash before sex, as does my husband. I shower every morning (using scented shower gel gasp), but I still feel better for a quick freshen up. I definitely wouldn’t have morning sex without brushing my teeth, and washing my genitals if my last shower was approaching 24 hours ago. Like a PP said, of course you’ll start to smell down there to an extent. I know some people don’t mind it, but I would.

I remember giving oral to one of my first boyfriends and whilst he was usually clean, on this one occasion he obviously hadn’t washed for a while and I was gagging…it was really unpleasant. Sorry if TMI, but I’d hate for that to happen to someone having sex / foreplay with me.