
To think otherwise is a sad approach to the human body.” -Adeeti Gupta, MD "To have a vagina that smells like vagina is to be someone who has a vagina.

“The olfactory signature of an individual is complex, highly individual, and composed of many ‘mini odors’,” according to the study. In fact, one 1975 study found that more than 2,100 factors that can shift your scent. And guess what? That affects how you smell. (ICYWW that pH is somewhere between 3.8 and 4.1).īut that bacterial makeup can change daily, and even hourly, in response to things like hormones, pH change, and hygiene. “There are a billion 'good' bacteria in the vagina, called lactobacilli, which keep the vagina at the pH needed to protect you from infection and keep you healthy,” says OB/GYN Lauren Streicher, MD, author of Sex Rx-Hormones, Health, and Your Best Sex Ever. Like the gut, every vagina has its own ecosystem of bacteria (sometimes called a vagina microbiome) that keeps it healthy. So, what determines the way a vagina smells? In one word: bacteria. To think otherwise is a sad approach to the human body," she says. Adeeti Gupta, MD, founder of Walk In GYN Care, echoes this point: "To have a vagina that smells like vagina is to be someone who has a vagina. “So long as it doesn’t have an infection, the way a vagina smells is natural and normal,” says OB/GYN Felice Gersh, MD, author of PCOS SOS: A Gynecologist’s Lifeline To Naturally Restore Your Rhythms, Hormones and Happiness. But still, nothing should make a vulva-owner feel ashamed of or a need to question the way their vagina smells.

Progress is being made in the vaginal-product realm (via an influx of vaginal-health products made by women for women that don’t attempt to alter the natural scent). Still, it's worth noting that none of the smattering of "healthy" scents will call to mind “spring flowers” or “delicate blossoms,” despite what a stroll down your local drugstore aisle may have you believe. Meaning, there's no single aromatic profile of a "healthy" vagina. PSA: No two vaginas smell the same, and every vagina can put off a variety of scents.
