Vaginal Juices

The last couple of days I keep getting whiffs of my vaginal juices and they smell good. Not just fresh or pleasant, but good. I keep putting my hands down my pants and sniffing my fingers, when I have taken my panties off I have put them right up to my face and taken a deep breath. But why?

Not, why do I do that, but why does it smell so good? It doesn't normally smell so desirable, but it is right now. Even as I write this I keep sniffing and tasting my fingers.

My vaginal juices smell and feel different throughout the month, pretty much as regular as clockwork. This is how it goes:

1) Smelly and sludgy, a tangy sweet smell, not particularly pleasant, this is the phase where I get crusty knickers, gross (I hate this phase!)
2) Menstruation
3) Not much discharge, what there is has a gentle delicate smell
4) Tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of clear discharge, no smell at all
5) Not much discharge, what there is has a gentle delicate smell

I'm in the fifth phase right now, so why is it so lovely and smelly, even tasty, at the moment? To be honest, it isn't just the current smell that has changed, but the last couple of months my whole pattern of vaginal juices has been thrown out of whack.

I wonder if this is stress or diet or age or changes in my sex life? It could be any or all of these features and this is both fascinating and frustrating.

Getting accurate information about anything to do with vaginas is nightmarish, doctors rarely take those of us who own them seriously. They attribute everything to "hormones" without ever doing tests. If I look at the internet the smelly, sludgy discharge is thrush, although why it should miraculously vanish and reappear at the same time every month is a bit beyond me.* Just about the only certainty is that the clear discharge that pours out by the bucketload is my time of ovulation. Of course, knowing that doesn't help explain why things should change and when it needs to get checked out by professionals.

I am "one" with my bodily functions and can pretty much work out when something is wrong and when I need to get it fixed (to the point that I have justly sought out second opinions when Drs have fobbed me off), but what about other persons with vaginas? How many of them keep as much track of their juices as I do? How many know what they should taste like at any given point? How many know what they should feel like between their fingers? How many only ever see them dried inside their panties? I hope not many, but I fear a great number.

Those of us with vaginas need to embrace our discharge, and perhaps we should also stop being afraid to talk about them. I can count the number of conversations I have had about vaginal discharge on one hand, although not for want of trying. Perhaps sex manuals and sex blogs and other sources of information should start to include more detail about vaginal juices. After all, they are an essential part of our health check....and they can taste amazing!



*In case you are worried, it isn't thrush, I've had that and know the difference, but the web tells me otherwise...