So I have balls and yeah they’re the first thing on my body to start to smell. I can skip a shower if I’m in a hurry and I don’t smell much. That’s with working a job that’s usually physical. I was a punk kid fucking punk girls when I was younger and we didn’t bathe every day. I didn’t notice much smell then.
Now I see these ads regularly that are like hey women you stink after 12 hrs 5/10. What’s up?
As a woman, I prefer to clean that area with isopropyl and tea tree oil. Call me crazy. I’ve been verbally berated for choosing to do this, by people who claim it’s “bad for your mucus membranes and flora”! You know what I don’t need because of that? Some expensive deodorant marketed specifically for that region of the body. Smells are a sign of an infection.
Ma’am, I’m not going to berate you at all. It’s your genitalia, you do what you want.
However, for anyone else coming along and taking this statement as true because someone has a vagina, please, please consult with someone that has actual knowledge before accepting that smells = infection. While some infections can be detected by smell, not all smells are signs of infection.
In truth, most people don’t get up close to female genitalia to know what smells are and aren’t “bad”. Of those infectious possibilities, two can be direct result of doing things like applying alcohol, tea tree oil, or other harsh substances.
Those two are a yeast infection, the other is bacterial vaginosis. If you’ve never smelt yeast that’s growing rapidly, you can at least have that experience by buying some and letting it grow in a jar. The scent when it’s out of control in and around the genitals is almost exactly the same, though with other scents present as well. The most common cause of a yeast infection is when something occurs to disrupt the normative balance of the genitals, giving the yeast a chance to go crazy without competition. Antibiotics in particular are very likely to cause them.
Bacterial vaginosis can be related to several different types of bacteria. Staph is possible, gardnerella, prevotella, bacterioides, and others may be present. Most often, this happens when something kills off the lactobacilli present on and in the genitals, allowing the other kinds to go crazy.
Sometimes sex with a new partner can bring new strains of those, throwing the balance off until things adjust. But, it can be caused by douche use, iron deficiency (in limited circumstances), stress, and/or as an opportunistic effect after other infections, or even after antibiotic use.
Now, please note that bacterial vaginosis being set off by sex doesn’t mean it’s an STD in the usual sense. You could have new strains of bacteria introduced in other ways, and it happens often enough after hot tub sessions you’d likely never use one at a hotel ever again if you were smart.
Again, bacterial vaginosis is not a guarantee of sexual contact with a new partner. It’s just one possibility of many.
While the smell of BV can vary a good bit, the classic smell is the “fishy” odor.
Smell is not always detectable when a yeast or bacterial infection is ongoing, so if you’re having unusual itching, changes in your normal discharges (and every cis vagina has discharge to some degree), or burning (particularly during urination), it’s worth talking to your doctor/gynecology specialist.
Now, there are plenty of other smells in and around vaginas. The two you’ll run across the most are a “musky + meaty” scent, and a slightly sour, almost tangy scent. Neither is a sign of disease or disorder, and they may occur together. There can be a sharp, citrusy scent along with those or by itself. Again, none of those smells are a problem, and many find them quite pleasant.
If you want your genitalia to smell healthy and normal, rule one is to be easy on them. No harsh cleansers, ever. No alcohol, no tea tree oil, no antibacterial soaps. Indeed, all you need to bathe genitals of any kind is plenty of warm water, two hands, and a soft cloth. Soap is not necessary, and the wrong soaps will possibly cause problems. If you can’t do without soaps, ask your gynecologist (if you have a cis vagina), or your GP, they can make recommendations as to brands. Same for penises, btw. You don’t need soap, just hands, a soft cloth, and clean water.
Seriously, genitalia are mostly self cleaning. The more you interfere in that, the more likely problems are to occur. The goal is to get rid of dead skin cells, excess oils, and any waste material that might still be present. Even the oils don’t require soap to control. Soap strips all of it away, and that’s not a good thing. You just want to keep it from building up.
For labia, you do want to lightly use a cloth or hands in all the folds. For a penis, the same, even if you’re uncircumcised. Just roll the foreskin back and gently wash with hands, or cloth, and clean water (warm is better, but not absolutely mandatory).
The source for all of this is twenty years of working as a nurse’s assistant, giving baths to patients and being directly responsible and accountable for patient hygiene and skin health. Every bit of this is what you’d get from a doctor that deals with genitals, and is current best practice for anyone and everyone.
Again, anyone can do whatever they want with their own genitals. Not saying anyone has to follow best practices. Just be aware that the more you deviate, the higher the chances of recurring problems.
Also, nobody needs deodorant on their genitals, ever. Even people with illnesses that cause bad odors that aren’t from infections, any deodorant is going to cause more problems than it fixes. Think about it, you’re applying something that holds dead skin and moisture in a warm and dark place. Any antimicrobial properties of the product are going to end eventually, and you now have damaged the normative balance. It’s setting up the worst possible outcome.
Lume? The people that own the company and do the commercials should be ashamed of themselves.
As a guy one thing I notice - there’s a difference in how good I dry my parts after showering. Things feel cleaner during the day if I manage to get all the moisture away but before hiding my best parts in underwear shortly after showering.
I have wondered many times (and here is the place people can answer) - am I the only one who uses the hairdryer on his balls after drying his hair? (When I do, I always have this “thank god nobody sees this” feeling)
I’ve heard people talking about old men blow drying their pubes at the gym but never seen it myself. Personally I shave that area so drying with a towel is fine.
Hair dryer on low setting plus balls is almost as good as hot sweaty balls and goldbond.
Both are 5/7 with rice
Absolutely! Gotta dry your junk well.
I tend to just use a towel and then stay naked for a while and let it happen gradually. But yeah, back when was still able to work, I would sometimes grab the hair dryer and get it done fast. I’ve had long hair since the eighties, so it was no big deal to add a minute or two of time to using it elsewhere too.
Thanks for the thorough post!
This is maybe TMI, but since you seem very knowledgeable, I’ll ask it anyway, sorry!
Generally I’m not a very active person. But lately I’ve been trying to work out more. I’ve noticed that on workout days, the scent is a lot stronger there even after showering and wiping with a cloth. If I wait a few days before working out again, the smell dissipates. So it’s not like there’s an infection or anything, just sweat. Any tips?
Generally, “gym funk” is a matter of the normative bacteria going nuts (pun intended) from the added heat and moisture. The best way to handle that is upping the exfoliation with a longer scrub, and paying extra attention to the taint/perineum and be extra thorough drying. A lot of the time, after a shower, the heat has caused the scrotum to loosen up, or labia to swell a bit. This means it can be difficult to really get everything fully exfoliated and dry.
The way I’ve described it before is that the taint is like a watershed. It’s dammed up by fabric, so it catches a lot of the detritus after the rain of a good workout. It’s a bit more difficult for guys because of the way the scrotum can hold onto things, and get in the way, but women can also run into issues with things sticking to the region if they/their caregiver doesn’t pay extra attention.
Someone else mentioned blow drying the area, and that really can work well. Towels can only pull off so much water, and the groin is usually towards the end of the drying process, so they’re damp. You sometimes see older gym rats doing it in the locker room because we’ve run into jock itch from not drying all the way, and that’s no fun at all, but you can wait until you’re home. Works just well for women, but you’d need to at least partly cover the labia, even if the labia minora are hidden by the majora.
As a human, I prefer to clean my eyes with tea tree oil and isopropyl alcohol. People may get upset by this, but I never have to clean sleep out of my eyes.
I can understand that. I have used isopropyl on my face, followed by tea tree oil to cure my acne, in the past. Both of which got close to my tear ducts. I had grey mucus come out of my right eye, and suddenly a bunch of pressure that I thought was a sinus headache subsided. I swear by isopropyl and tea tree oil now.
I’d be more worried that isopropyl would irritate your skin, but, hey, if it doesn’t bother you, good for you!
No, they most certainly are not. You have been badly, badly, misinformed.
Really?
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/health/the-smell-of-disease?cid=ios_app
Did you read your own source? Some smells are am indication of infection, not all. Pure delusional
They agree that smells can indicate an infection. They cite a medical study. Find something better to do with your life than attack some internet stranger on a Saturday. I’m not delusional for citing an article that references a medical study. You’re rude, and there’s no cure for that.