Reproductive health maintenance

Reproductive health maintenance is never "special care" only for people preparing for pregnancy or a single gender, nor is it a private topic that is ashamed to be discussed. It is a normalized health management behavior that covers the entire life cycle from adolescence to old age and requires a combination of daily habit adjustments, regular standardized screening, and scientific intervention after problems arise.

I met two very typical patients at the outpatient clinic last week. A 21-year-old female college student had vulva itching for half a month. She didn't dare to tell her family or come to the hospital. She chose a top-selling "Internet celebrity antibacterial lotion" on the e-commerce platform and rinsed her vagina every day. After a week of doing it, she was so itchy that she couldn't even sit in class. When she came for a check, the vaginal flora was severely imbalanced, and the pH value soared to 6.8.； There is also a 34-year-old male patient who has been married for 3 years without contraception and has never gotten pregnant. He always felt that "I run every day and I am in good health, so the problem must not be with me." When he asked for a semen routine check, he found that the sperm motility was less than 20%. After asking, he found out that he works in operations for 12 hours a day and likes to go to the sauna with friends on weekends. These habits have long been quietly depleting the quality of sperm.

Nowadays, people's attitudes towards reproductive health maintenance tend to go to two extremes. No one is right or wrong, they are just a little biased. One type is those who are overly anxious. They saw a short video saying that "yellowing leucorrhea is a precursor to cervical cancer" and "moist scrotum is kidney deficiency." They were so frightened that they quickly stocked up on thousands of yuan of personal care gels and health supplements. In fact, many times they just stayed up for three days and drank too little water and got angry. There is no need to blindly supplement. ； The other type is those who believe that "no pain, no itching, no disease", but they don't know that many reproductive system problems have no obvious symptoms in the early stages - HPV infection, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, early prostate cancer. By the time you really feel pain or feel a lump, the best time for intervention has often been delayed.

People often ask me, can the personal care products sold online be used? In fact, there is no absolute one-size-fits-all conclusion in this industry. Traditional obstetrics and gynecology and andrology guidelines clearly recommend that in a healthy state, regardless of men or women, it is enough to clean the external genitalia with warm water on a daily basis. Never use lotions, gels and other products to rinse the inside of the genitals casually. It is easy to destroy the normal bacterial flora barrier and cause illness even if it is not there. ； However, there are also clinical views that if you have experienced mild discomfort, or are in special stages such as menstruation or surgery, under the guidance of regular hospital doctors, using medical-grade care products with medical device registration can indeed relieve symptoms and assist recovery. There is no need to kill all care products at once. The key is not to buy and use them blindly, and use the "grass planting notes" of Internet celebrity bloggers as medical advice.

It’s quite interesting to say that many couples have conflicts but can’t find the reason. In the end, it is found that reproductive health is the fault. There used to be a young couple. The girl suffered from vaginitis repeatedly for half a year. She stopped taking the medicine and then relapsed. They almost broke up. Finally, they took the boy for a checkup, only to find that the boy’s foreskin was too long and he didn’t pay attention to cleaning. The smegma hidden there caused repeated cross-infection. After circumcision, the girl’s inflammation never happened again. Don’t really think that reproductive health is your own business. The health status of partners is inherently bound.

The precautions for different age groups are actually not that complicated, so there is no need to keep a special list. Adolescent children should not be shy. Parents should take the initiative to mention a few more words. Girls should know to change sanitary napkins frequently when they have just started menstruation. Boys should also understand the importance of clean foreskin. Don’t wait until the inflammation and pain make you unable to walk. ； Young people in their twenties and thirties should not rely on their youth. Unprotected sex is really not allowed. Unexpected pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases can cause irreversible damage to the body. If you have a regular sexual partner, do a routine screening together every year. It is not a shameful thing. It is responsible for both parties. ； People in their 40s and 50s should not think, "Why are you checking for this after you've already gone through menopause/given birth?" Cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer are at the highest risk during this period. Spending hundreds of dollars every year on TCT, HPV, and prostate-specific antigen screening can really save lives.

A case that particularly impressed me was a 42-year-old sister last year who was found to be HPV16 positive during a physical examination at work. The TCT showed that there was no problem. She searched on the Internet and found that HPV positivity means she will get cervical cancer sooner or later. She was so scared that she cried at home for three days. When she came to see me, her eyes were swollen like walnuts. In fact, this situation does not require special treatment at all. 90% of HPV infections are transient. As long as the immunity is normal, it will turn negative on its own in 1-2 years. I asked her not to stay up late and take half an hour to take a walk every day. After half a year, she checked again and it turned negative. It was in vain that she frightened herself for so long.

In fact, to put it bluntly, reproductive health is no different from protecting our stomach and heart. They are all part of the body, and there is no need to put a "shameful" filter on it. Wear less stuffy tights for two days and drink two more glasses of water. When you feel uncomfortable, don’t be too embarrassed to go to a regular hospital. This will work better than any “private care package” that costs thousands of dollars. After all, your body is yours. If something goes wrong, it’s you who will be hurt. No one can do it for you, right?