You may thought that yeast infection is the most widespread vaginal infections in women. Actually, there is an even more common vaginal infection in women of fertile age, and that is bacterial vaginosis (BV) infection.

In the US, BV affects about 16% of women during pregnancy, and 10%-64% of the general female population at any given time. Medical scientists are still trying to determine the exact bacterial vaginosis causes. What is known thus far is that the vaginal environment has undergone some alterations in BV.

In bacterial vaginosis, the balance of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria inhabiting the vaginal area is disrupted – there is now more bad bacteria, i.e. BV-causing bacteria, than the good ones, the hydrogen-peroxide producing lactobacilli. That is why BV is so hard to be cured permanently without recurring again. However, nowadays many women managed to eradicate BV completely with bacterial vaginosis natural cures.

Before proceed to understand the risk factors and causes of bacterial vaginosis, it’s important to separate the common myths from the facts about BV infection. First and foremost, you must understand that you don’t get BV through:

* Sitting on toilet seats or chairs.

* Beddings – mattresses or linens you sleep on.

* Swimming pools.

* Coming in contact with things around you.

So what causes bacterial vaginosis?

Known causes and risk factors of BV include:

1. Sexual activity

While BV is not thought as a form of sexually transmitted disease, studies have found a link between BV and sexual activity. Nevertheless, it remains unclear as to how sex alters the balance of vaginal bacteria.

While bacterial vaginosis occurs in almost all women who are sexually active, rarely it also happens in females who haven’t had sex before. The BV-causing germs have also been found in teenage boys and girls who are still virgins. So far, sexual activity remains the strongest risk factor of BV.

Medical observations so far are that:

* The risk of getting BV is greatly increased if the woman has more sexual partners.

* BV could be linked to having a new sexual partner.

* The male partner(s) of women with BV may carry the same bacteria in their urinary tract, but the male does not experience any symptom of BV.

* Not using a condom may increase the chances of getting BV.

2. Vaginal douching

Medical research have found that vaginal douching is a contributing factor to bacterial vaginosis because it upsets the balance of the vaginal flora. It was suggested that douching causes either an imbalance to the vaginal flora or triggers inflammation due to the chemical or physical irritation from douching. This then increases the woman’s risk for BV. The majority of douche products on the market contain mainly fragrance, water and acetic acid, and some also contain surfactant detergents.

Surfactant detergents kill bacteria by breaking their cell structure. At the same time, it also removes important antibacterial elements on the vaginal cell membranes, causing irritation of the vaginal wall lining and increasing the risk of infection.

3. Other recognized BV causes include cigarette smoking, use of intrauterine device (IUD) for birth control, and stress.