In the past, I've written a lot about the microbiome of our vagina, but in this post, I want to look a little deeper into the relationship between the microbiome/flora of our vagina and smoking.
What is a microbiome?
A collection of bacteria, fungi, viruses that live in a reciprocal relationship in all kinds of areas of our body and are responsible for maintaining health in general and the health of the organ in particular.
Our vaginal flora is there to protect and maintain our vaginal health.
The vaginal flora is the first line of defense against vaginal infections. When we talk about the microbiome of the gut, we are talking about diversity, which means we need a variety of as many types as possible, on the other hand our vaginal flora prefers to have a limited number of families of the microbiome. Certain types of families are associated with reproductive problems and sexually transmitted diseases, while the family called Lactobacillus crispatus is associated with vaginal health.
An unbalanced vaginal microbiome may lead to inflammation, sexually transmitted diseases and even be linked to miscarriages and premature babies.
What can affect our microbiome?
There are several things that can affect the vaginal microbiome, for example race. A recent study in the US showed that POC (PEOPLE OF COLOR) have more diversity in their vaginal flora and other studies conducted in Africa show that they have fewer Lactobacillus Crispatus families compared to women of European and Asian descent.
Estrogen appears to play a role in the vaginal microbiome as it promotes glycogen growth in the vaginal tissues that maintain the natural moisture of the vagina. High levels of estrogen are thought to help build the Lactobacillus community. In women after the age of puberty (menopause) lower levels of glycogen, lower levels of lactobacillus were found and we also know that there is a greater tendency to vaginal dryness.
Certain types of hormonal contraceptives can alter the vaginal microbiota.
Studies show that the use of contraceptives such as the pill, the injection (Depo-Provera), the subcutaneous implant, the intrauterine device (Mirena, Kylina...) reduce the most beneficial family, Lactobacillus.
One of the things that encourage bacterial vaginosis is smoking. Some of the ingredients in cigarettes can be detected in the cervical fluid. In one study they found that lactobacillus was lower in female smokers. Smoking actually has an antiestrogenic effect and traces of benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE) found in cigarettes may increase the risk of bacterial vaginosis (BV).
In my 20's and 30's, I smoked quite a lot and reading all this information explains why I suffered so much in those years from repeated puffs.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4161850/