Vaginosis in pregnancy: causes and symptoms

Very often, a woman who carries a child, undergoes serious pathologies, and all because her body is rebuilt, he has to work for two, so the immune system is weakened. Often, women have such diseases of the reproductive system, which without proper treatment can lead to miscarriage. One of these ailments is bacterial vaginosis. During pregnancy, he often meets and requires urgent treatment under the supervision of the attending physician. But what kind of ailment is this, how to treat it properly, and what preventive measures to take?

What is vaginosis?

Vaginosis in pregnancy is a disease accompanied by violations in the vagina with a rapid decrease in the number of lactic-acid bacteria and a pronounced increase in the opportunistic microflora. In rare cases, an inflammatory process occurs. This is one of the most common ailments that occur in women of reproductive age. Randomly, it can be diagnosed only in 30% of patients, those who complain of whitish discharge - in 90% of cases, and in pregnant women - in 35%.

Bacterial vaginosis during pregnancy, or, as it is often called, dysbiosis, leads to the fact that the lactobacilli completely disappear, which are responsible for the protective functions of the body, so the woman becomes vulnerable. During pregnancy, neglected forms can lead to loss of the fetus, so it is very important to detect the disease in time and begin treatment.

The norm of bacteria in the vagina

In the vagina of each woman there live special bacteria that protect the reproductive system from inflammation and other pathologies. The optimal number should be as follows:

• Lactobacillus - 95%;
• 2.5-5% is a conditionally pathogenic flora.

The number of pathogenic organisms is so great that it is impossible to say exactly how many of them there are, each girl has a set of her own, but there are certain species that are present in everyone and they will definitely appear if dysbacteriosis begins. Home from bacteria is Gardnerella vaginalis, it always shows up if vaginosis begins during pregnancy. It is considered a kind of marker and almost all laboratory tests are based on it.

Classification of vaginosis

Before you understand the important issue for many women, than to treat vaginosis during pregnancy, you need to know exactly what the severity of the ailment is:

• 1 degree. It is determined if there is no microflora in the smear, and there are epithelial cells without changes and the possibility of infection with other bacteria is preserved.
• 2 degree. In this case, the degree of Doderlein's rods is reduced, and the gram-negative and positive flora increases, a small increase in white blood cells is found in the blood.
• 3 degree. In this case, lactobacilli are completely absent, the clinical picture of the disease is obvious.

Causes of Vaginosis in Pregnant Women

When the lactobacilli is normal, nothing threatens neither the woman nor her fetus. They monitor the balance of microflora and produce lactic acid, which maintains an optimal acid balance, which is harmful to most pathogenic microorganisms. But under the influence of certain factors, the number of beneficial bacteria can decrease, in this case there is a violation of the microecological system. A low level of lactobacilli leads to uncontrolled growth of harmful bacteria: gardnerellas, bacteroides, mobilinkusov, peptococci, mycoplasmas, streptococci.

To determine what exactly affects the microflora and causes vaginosis during pregnancy is difficult, but internal and external factors can influence the decrease in the number of lactobacilli:

• Taking antibiotics;
• Treatment with antimicrobial, hormonal and antifungal agents;
• Malfunctions in the hormonal background after abortion, labor or puberty;
• Vaginal douche;
• Use of antimicrobial agents during intimate hygiene with triclosan;
• Use of oral contraceptives;

• The use of spermicides, which are part of the candles for the vagina and tablets;
• Diseases of an allergic or endocrine nature;
• Climate change, stressful situations;
• Imbalance in the intestine;
• Wearing synthetic clothes;
• Pregnancy, especially with complications;
• Neglect of hygiene rules.

How does the proportion of bacteria change during pregnancy?

Lactobacillus helps to break down glycogen, formed from cells of the flat epithelium of the vagina, which is necessary in order to build an invisible protective barrier. But these cells do not live long, and all because in the body of every lady the hormonal background is constantly changing and not always for the better.

At a time when a woman is carrying a baby, under the influence of the hormones of the yellow body, the number of cells of the flat epithelium increases significantly. As a result, it turns out that the glycogen reserve is large enough, so the level of lactobacilli increases, and the degree of opportunistic microflora decreases and, as a result, the pH becomes lower. The body tries to cleanse the birth canal itself by the time the labor begins and the baby gets acquainted with a healthy microflora that will settle in his intestines.

At first glance it seems that everything should be just perfect, but in most cases too acidic environment leads to the fact that some forms of transient infections grow, including candida fungi, mycoplasma, ureplasm, and eventually develops vaginosis during pregnancy.

What happens with vaginosis?

When one of the mechanisms is affected, the amount of nutrients goes down. The degree of lactic acid decreases rapidly, the pH rises and the pathogenic flora begins to multiply, first of all it concerns the Gardnerella, which further depresses the beneficial bacteria. It turns out a "vicious circle", as a result of which lactobacilli are killed in large numbers.

The rapid development of pathogenic microorganisms leads to the fact that the woman has unpleasant symptoms, indicating that vaginosis appeared during pregnancy.

Symptomatology in pregnant women

Not always in the early stages of the disease manifests a strong symptomatology, but if the disease is progressing, then there are such signs:

• Abundant leucorrhoea a little grayish shade, and if the disease is not treated for years, then the secretions can become greenish, foamy and viscous;
• There is a characteristic fishy smell, especially it is audible during intercourse of partners;
• There is pain during intercourse, burning;
• Discomfort at the bottom of the abdomen does not allow to live quietly, when examination reveals hypertension of the uterus;
• Unpleasant burning during urination, but this symptom is much less common.

After the first symptoms have appeared, you need to immediately seek advice from a gynecologist who will conduct the examination and be able to accurately diagnose.

Diagnostic methods for determining vaginosis

Most often, only the doctor can diagnose pathology. Independently, no woman can tell what kind of infection progresses in her body, since there are many varieties of bacteria causing it. Most often just feel discomfort in the lower abdomen and the vagina, so you need to seek advice from a doctor. He, in turn, examines the woman, takes a smear for analysis and makes blood sampling to conduct additional studies and to identify what kind of infection triggered the development of the disease.

After carrying out all the necessary studies, you can accurately confirm or deny the diagnosis, and only after that start the treatment of vaginosis during pregnancy.

What is dangerous when a baby is pregnant?

Any infection can seriously harm the health of not only the woman, but her future baby. During vaginosis, inflammation of the amniotic fluid can occur, as a result of which a crack or even a rupture may appear on it. If this happens, the woman may begin premature birth or spontaneous abortion. If a crack appears, the infection can enter the amniotic fluid, and eventually the baby will become infected.

Such infection can lead to serious consequences: fetal development will stop or sepsis will appear.

That is why it is important to detect bacterial vaginosis in time in pregnancy. Treatment should be started immediately after confirmation of the diagnosis and all recommendations must be carried out rigorously.

Treatment of vaginosis during pregnancy

If the patient's diagnosis is confirmed, then the doctor first recommends that he drink a course of antibiotics that are safe for the woman in her position.

It is very important to follow all the doctor's recommendations, starting from the first and until the last day, until all the symptoms disappear. But it is worth remembering that the disappearance of symptoms may indicate that the infection has subsided, but once the medication is stopped, they may again manifest. And relapses usually take place much harder, and therapy on them is worse.

But even if the patient fully follows all the recommendations - to take antibiotics, put candles against bacterial vaginosis during pregnancy, it is possible that the infection will appear again.

Almost a third of the women who have been treated have repeated symptoms in the first three months after taking antibiotics. Relapse due to the fact that taking such drugs killed most of not only pathogenic bacteria, but also useful. And until now, no such method has been found that could make useful bacteria reproduce faster, therefore pathogenic microorganisms continue to multiply.

If a relapse occurs, the woman is prescribed a repeat therapy, while the drugs are selected individually, because you need to do everything possible to protect the fetus. To answer the main question exactly what to treat a bacterial vaginosis during pregnancy will be able to the gynecologist who knows exactly about all the diseases of the woman and will take all measures not to harm the health of the patient and her future baby.

How to restore the microflora?

After taking antibiotics, the microflora is disturbed, so it is very important to start taking biologics and use them intravaginally. More often doctors stop on such medicines:

• "Apilak";
• "Acilact";
• Bifidumbacterin;
• "Lactobacterin" and others.

To do this, take 2 doses of the drug and dilute 5 ml of purified water, get a swab and introduce it intravaginally. The procedure is carried out twice a day. The course is up to 10 days.

But before starting this kind of therapy, it is better to ask advice from a doctor.

Prophylaxis of vaginosis

To date, and it is not clear until the end, what exactly causes a dysbiosis in the genital organs of a woman, so it's impossible to say exactly what preventive measures will give a positive result. But there are several ways that will help a little reduce the risk that a woman will have bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy:

• It is very important to adhere to the rules of safe sex, especially if you are not sure of a partner. While it is not clear what role the sexual life of a woman plays in the emergence of vaginosis, but statistics say that pathology is more common in those patients who have multiple sexual partners at the same time.
• It is important to give up smoking. There is an opinion that smoking leads to the fact that the risk of developing such a pathology as vaginosis in the early stages of pregnancy increases.

• You should not douche and wash your vagina with a stream of water. Also, the doctor does not advise using sprays for intimate hygiene and soap for washing the genitals. All these funds can disrupt the balance and lead to the development of pathogenic microflora.

Any diseases during pregnancy require careful approach and careful treatment to prevent complications and do not harm the baby.