A doctor warns women to not put garlic in their vagina in an attempt to treat yeast infections.
Gynecologist Jen Gunter from California took to Twitter and ranted about the old wives’ tale which encourages women to put garlic inside the vagina for three days. Doing so could result in further infections.
The vagina is the ‘perfect’ environment for the botulism bacteria to grow. It can be life-threatening and may lead to paralysis.
This is not the first time doctors have busted similar folklores, such as one claiming putting parsley in the vagina can help induce periods.
Dr. Gunter wrote in a series of tweets: “Why you should not put garlic in your vagina. A thread. Garlic contains allicin, in the LAB it MAY have antifungal (i.e. anti yeast) properties. This is in a lab, not even in mice. Just a dish of cells. Your vagina is not a dish of cells. #vaginaisanogarliczone.”
“Lots of vaginal garlic aficionados (I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO TWEET THAT IN 2019 BUT HERE WE ARE) recommend inserting a clove. This means they don’t understand for allicin to be released the garlic has to be cut or crushed. Sigh.
“Garlic could have bacteria from the soil. Bacteria from the soil can be pathogenic – bad for the body. That’s why we clean wounds. If you actually happen to have an inflamed yeasty vagina that soil bacteria would be more likely to infect.
“So for garlic to work you would have to crush it and stuff it up somehow. There is still the dirt thing. And the cut up garlic on raw tissues thing (OUCH). And the fishing of the garlic out by the gyno thing.
“Garlic can cause biofilms on braces, so could garlic contribute to biofilms in the vagina? Biologically plausible. Biofilms are bad. You do not want them to form especially when you have yeast. Effect of garlic good bacteria are also unknown.
“As 50-70% of women who self treat for vaginal yeast never actually had a yeast infection you can’t say much, except half of them never had yeast to begin with so the irritation they had may have been a temporary thing and resolving wasn’t garlic related.”
She added: “My advice, do not take medical advice from anyone recommending vaginal garlic for yeast or anything else.
“I’m adding one more tweet. You know why you refrigerate home made garlic vinaigrette? So any clostridium bacteria laying around on the garlic doesn’t produce botulinum toxin. Right. The vagina is an anaerobic environment, so percent for clostridium. You’re welcome. 9/8.”
One Twitter user, Raquelle Jason, replied: “You are wrong. Garlic has helped me and everyone else I’ve told about it when prescription meds were not possible.” She also shared a recipe that requires garlic to be inserted in a gauze for 12 hours to 3 days.
A vaginal yeast infection causes discharge, irritation, and itchiness of the vulva and the vagina. Other symptoms include swelling of the vulva, rash, and burning sensation.
The condition affects up to 3 of 4 women at some point in their life. Some women experience at least two times.
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