Breaking the Taboo & Busting Myths with Canesten | Win a £50 Amazon Voucher!*

10 October, 2017

Today I'm talking about something a little different from my usual topics on Fox & Feather; today I'm talking about breaking the taboo of talking about intimate health and taking care of your downstairs department with a little help from Canesten.

I spoke to a few friends recently to discuss exactly why we don't discuss our intimate health so openly and the unanimous answer was simply because of 'embarrassment', which is completely unnecessary. It seems we're paving the way for talking more openly about our periods, which is fantastic, but why is vaginal health still considered a taboo? It's our reservations about discussing this with others, including doctors or pharmacists, that can lead to us self-diagnosing ourselves incorrectly. In fact, many women mistake bacterial vaginosis (BV) for thrush even though they are two completely different infections and require different treatments entirely.

Even I'll confess that I didn't know the first thing about identifying BV from thrush, but luckily Canesten have set up an area on their website where you can identify the symptoms of BV from thrush before you seek out treatment. Over 75% of those with a vagina will suffer from thrush at least once in their life and a lot of people don't even consider BV despite it being so common, so it's important that we educate ourselves on spotting the differences. A lot of us will suffer uncomfortably in silence because we're too embarrassed to talk about it - it's time for that to change!

Take the quiz

Canesten have created an online quiz, which will test your knowledge of thrush and BV. I took the quiz and only scored a measly 3/6 and in all honesty, most of it was purely guess work! If you want to give it a go and be in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon gift voucher (see below), you can take the quiz here.

In order to encourage YOU to educate yourself a little more on intimate health, I've teamed up with Canesten to give away a £50 Amazon voucher to anyone who takes the quiz and follows the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget to the left. Let me know how you get on in the comments below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Canesten, but all thoughts & words are my own.

109 comments

  1. 3 here too. All guesswork. Surprised at some of the answers

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  2. My score is 4/6. I didn't know vaginal ph is acid.

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  3. I only got 3 right - oops. It's definitely an eye opener that we need to be a bit more open and vocal about vaginal health and perhaps do a bit more research into it all. It's our bodies after all, we should know what's going on and how they're working.

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  4. I got 5/6, and was surprised at how common BV is.

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  5. Only got 1/6 🙈

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  6. 2/6 - it taught me that I don't know a lot!!

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  7. I got 1/6 :O omg! thanks for teaching me :D xx

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  8. 6/6 though I have done it about 8 times over the past month! First time I got 1/6 so at least I have learned some facts!

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  9. 4/6 I didn't know that BV was so common

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  10. I scored 6/6 but a bit of luck was involved.I never new about the shark fact until doing this test.

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  11. Scored 3/6 and interesting what the other answers were

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  12. I scored 3 out of 6 and I learnt that Squalene is also found in sharks and not cats!

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  13. 4/6 - need to improve my knowledge!

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  14. 4/6 I learnt that the vagina can clean itself!! WOW you learn something new every day :)

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  15. 3/6 thought I knew a lot about its health just proves you can teach an old dog new trick

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  16. I got 3/6 and I learnt that BV is more common than I thought

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  17. 2/6. I learnt that BV affect 1 in 3

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  18. I got 5 out of 6. I learned that the most common vaginal problems are caused by bacteria.

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  19. Surprised myself and got a solid 5 out of 6, although I did learn that BV affects more than I had thought!

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  20. 5 out of 6, didn't know what squalene is!
    -Kat C

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  21. I scored 3 out of 6 I need to go back & read up again!

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  22. I only got 3/6! I've never even heard of squalene so that's something I've learnt (subsequently googled it because I was interested!)

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  23. 4/6 Keep thinking the vagina needs to be alkaline not acidic.

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  24. Only scored 3 out of 6,surprised by the answers.!

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  25. 6/6. But okay, that was the second time I'd taken that test, the first time I got 3/6 so I'm rather glad I have remembered everything. I'd never neard of BV before this test.

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  26. I got 5/6, I didn't realise BV was so common! Assumed it was 1 in 10!

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  27. 5/6 we have more in common with sharks than I knew!

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  28. 3/6 - most were guesses so I guess I've learnt new stuff

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  29. I got 2/6 which surprised me, I thought I knew more!

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  30. 3/6, questions were quite difficult !

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  31. 4/6 I learnt BV affects less people than I thought

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  32. 4/6 I learned we have something in common with sharks!

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  33. Well, 2/6 ain't bad lol!! I learned a bit about sharks!!

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  34. 3 out of 6... who knew I had an acidic vagina!

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  35. 5/6 and that's only because I had a brain fart and picked the wrong answer even though I knew the right one. Guess I'm fairly clued up either way.

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  36. I scored five and was surprised to learn that bacterial infections are more common than yeast.

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  37. I scored 6 out of 6 and nothing surprised me, as I knew it all! :)

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  38. 3/6 more common than I thought with 1 in 3 women getting it. Still a bit of a taboo subject for some. Just glad I have a fab bestie I can talk to about things like this.

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  39. I got 5/6 I always forget that the vagina is acidic!

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  40. I got 2/6 and learned quite a bit.

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  41. 4/6, surprised about the shark!

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  42. I scored4/6 - I didn't know the pH of the vagina

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  43. 5/6 Learnt that the vagina has an acidic rather than neutral pH

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  44. 4/6 with a couple of interesting surprises

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  45. 4/6 -I always thought thrush was the most common infection. Surprised by that.

    Hazel Rea @Beachrambler

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  46. 3/6 I was surprised it was bacterial and not yeast.

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  47. I scored 3/6 learnt some new things but got the shark one right 😁

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  48. 5/6. Shark link a bit of a surprise.

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  49. I only got 2/6 I clearly need some remedial lady-parts education.

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  50. I scored 3/6 and learned that most common vaginal problems are caused by bacteria.

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  51. i got 4/6 , learned abut the shark comparison

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  52. I got 6/6 but have done it a few times - I didn't know the squalene question at first

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  53. 3/6. Never knew that Squalene is a substance common in both the vagina and sharks. A real eye-opening quiz, that's for sure - and very insightful, too.

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  54. I got 3/6 and learnt how common BV is

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  55. 5 out of 6. Knew how common BV is as have suffered from it. Hellish to get rid of.

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  56. I learned that your area is meant to be acid (rather than neutral), it can clean itself and most infections down there are bacterial x

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  57. 4/6, a few were guesses! 1 in 3 women suffer from BV, that's a higher number than I would've thought.

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  58. Wow, 5/6, it seems I know more than I thought I did! Thanks for a super giveaway x

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  59. I got 5/6 I'm am surprised by my knowledge on this topic

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  60. I scored 4/6, interesting survey

    @polly58

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  61. I found out that Squalene is a substance common in both the vagina and Sharks!
    @polly58

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  62. i got 3/6 and am glad these things are out in the open these days

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  63. I scored 3. I learn that my degree in zoology got me a point for knowing that squalene was in sharks. I also learnt that BV is much more common that i thought.

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  64. 3 / 6 , learnt i dont know it all lol

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  65. 6/6 only though experience! lol.

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  66. I scored 3/6. Thought I had got them all right. I leant a few things x

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  67. I scored 3/6 and I learnt some interesting things x

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  68. I scored 4/6, i was surprised to learn most common infection is bacterial

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  69. 2/6 not to shabby for a bloke

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  70. I got 5/6, I didn't know the vagina was acidic... always thought it would have a neutral ph x

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  71. 3/6 taught me i need to learn a few things

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  72. I got 5/6 - the last time I did this quiz I got 2/6 so I've learnt a lot! I now know that bacteria is the most common infection

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  73. 2 out of 6. Then again, I'm a guy (not that it should be an excuse!).

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  74. 3/6 and made me realise I did not know as much as I thought

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  75. I scored 4/6 which I don't think is that bad. I also learnt a thing or two about the PH of a healthy vagina !

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  76. 5/6 I learnt vaginas and sharks have something in common

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  77. 4/6 here, but mostly guesses if I'm honest! The shark one was interesting.

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  78. I got 4/6. Surprised by how common BV is!

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  79. 1 got 4/6 - I thought the PH would be neutral so that was interesting to learn!

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  80. 3/6
    Shocked that a vagina is acidic!

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  81. I only got 1 out of 6 - Gary and Michelle Wild.

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  82. Omg! I only scored 1 out of 6!! I am shocked at how little I know about this!

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