<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" In a perfect world, you&amp;#039;d have plenty of time and energy to take top-notch care of your body, particularly your below-the-belt area. But with your day-to-day life so hectic and demanding, it&amp;#039;s hard to resist scaling back some seemingly minor down-there health habits.  Bad idea. &amp;quot;Taking certain shortcuts may seem harmless, but you could suffer major consequences like a vaginal infection, an STD or an unplanned pregnancy,&amp;quot; explains Elizabeth McGee, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Yikes -- good thing we&amp;#039;ve got the latest news on the southern-region cutbacks you simply can&amp;#039;t afford to make.  Gyno Shortcut 1: You Leave a Tampon in While You Sleep  During the day, you&amp;#039;d never let eight hours pass without changing your tampon. (Changing it every four hours is what gynos recommend.) But at night, if you&amp;#039;re super tired and your flow is light, you may not be willing to haul yourself out of bed for a spare.  Here&amp;#039;s why you should: &amp;quot;Bacteria thrive even in small amounts of blood, and within eight hours, the bacteria on your tampon will have multiplied to potentially hazardous levels -- causing a foul odor and itching and possibly escalating to a full-blown infection that requires antibiotics to cure,&amp;quot; explains Jill Maura Rabin, M.D., head of urogynecology at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, in New York.  So if you think you might snooze through the night and maybe even the next morning, switch to a pad. Yeah, it&amp;#039;s bulky. But you&amp;#039;ll sleep tight knowing that it&amp;#039;s unlikely to cause a gnarly infection.  Gyno Shortcut 2: You Don&amp;#039;t Check Out Your Salon Before Getting a Bikini Wax  It&amp;#039;s the day before a long weekend away with your guy, and you&amp;#039;re in a hurry to de-fuzz your nether region. So you hop on the waxing table without knowing if the salon follows crucial safety procedures. That&amp;#039;s when things can get hairy.  &amp;quot;If a waxer doesn&amp;#039;t pay attention to standards of hygiene, your vaginal area may come into contact with her germs or the germs of the last few customers,&amp;quot; explains Sandy Tsao, M.D., clinical instructor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. Odds are, you won&amp;#039;t contract anything. But if she or the previous customers have a bacterial skin infection like staph -- which can be life threatening -- you might pick it up. Another danger is hepatitis C, a chronic liver disease transmitted when an infected person&amp;#039;s blood gets into your bloodstream. &amp;quot;It could happen if your skin is sensitive and you bleed after a wax,&amp;quot; says Dr. Tsao.  When you make an appointment, ask if the waxer has an aesthetician or waxing license; either proves that she has had the appropriate training. Before you bare all, make sure she covers the table with a clean towel or sheet of paper. And check that she opens a sterile dipping device instead of reusing the one already sitting on the pot. &amp;quot;She should also prep your bikini line with alcohol or an antimicrobial lotion, which kills bugs on the spot,&amp;quot; says Dr. Tsao.  Gyno Shortcut 3: You Buy Birth-Control Pills from an Online-Only Drugstore  So the mailing address is a post-office box in some rinky-dink town, and the &amp;quot;pharmacist&amp;quot; who runs the site doesn&amp;#039;t bother to verify that you actually have a prescription. The Pill is the Pill no matter where it comes from, right? Wrong answer. &amp;quot;You have no idea if the oral contraceptives an online site sends you contain the right hormones or if the expiration date has already passed,&amp;quot; says Dr. Rabin. &amp;quot;A lot of cyber drugstores operate outside the U.S. and have no fixed address, and they&amp;#039;re not accountable to the standards that a regular pharmacy is.&amp;quot; Shell out the extra bucks and get the Pill at a legit pharmacy.  Gyno Shortcut 4: You Sit Around in Sweaty Workout Clothes  After spin class, you skip the showers at your gym and spend the next few hours hanging out in your now air-dried workout gear. It may be comfy, but it&amp;#039;s definitely not healthy.  &amp;quot;Bacteria and yeast love sweat, so the longer you wear your gym shorts and underwear even after they&amp;#039;ve dried, the greater your risk of a bacteria-triggered urinary tract infection or of a yeast infection,&amp;quot; says Dr. Rabin. All that sweat and salt can clog pores, causing folliculitis -- infected, pimplelike hair follicles -- on your V zone.  If you can&amp;#039;t shower post-workout, wear cotton underwear and gym clothes. &amp;quot;Cotton wicks sweat away from your bod and helps skin dry fast,&amp;quot; says Dr. Tsao. Or stick on a panty liner while you exercise, which can absorb sweat but can be tossed once you&amp;#039;re finished.  Gyno Shortcut 5: You Diagnose Your Own Vaginal Infections  You&amp;#039;ve had yeast infections and UTIs in the past, so you&amp;#039;re sure you recognize the symptoms when they crop up again and skip the hassle of a gyno visit. Without an M.D. degree and your own diagnostic lab, however, you have no way of knowing what&amp;#039;s really going on down below. Not to mention that you need a prescription from a doctor to cure most infections anyway.  &amp;quot;The itching that you think is caused by yeast could really be the result of herpes or a skin allergy,&amp;quot; says Dr. McGee. &amp;quot;And the burning while peeing you&amp;#039;re sure is a UTI symptom might be triggered by chlamydia or another STD. While you waste time with OTC remedies, the real infection could worsen.&amp;quot; Bottom line: When any symptom strikes, suck it up and see your gyno.  Gyno Shortcut 6: You Hold in Your Urine  It&amp;#039;s only been an hour since your last trip to the toilet, and you&amp;#039;ve gotta go again. Thing is, you&amp;#039;re too wrapped up in your job to take a five-minute pee break. Holding it in won&amp;#039;t make your bladder burst -- but it can boost your risk of a UTI. &amp;quot;Going to the bathroom rids the bladder of bacteria that breed in urine,&amp;quot; says Suzanne Merrill-Nach, an ob/gyn in San Diego. &amp;quot;Ignoring the urge to go gives the bacteria more time to reproduce, which can trigger an infection.&amp;quot;  Another time you should never postpone peeing: before sex. &amp;quot;When your bladder is full, your urethra is more open and vulnerable to bacteria from your vagina and/or your man&amp;#039;s penis,&amp;quot; says Dr. Rabin. If bacteria get inside and thrive, it&amp;#039;s UTI city.  Thongs. Wedged into your butt crack, the string provides bacteria a direct path to your V zone.  Supersnug jeans. They trap sweat and discharge, helping bacteria and yeast set up shop.  Scented body wash or soap. The chemicals used to produce the fragrance may irritate your vulva, causing an itchy rash.  A piping-hot shower. Steamy water can inflame the skin of your vagina and wash away skin oils, making it dry and itchy.  --Jill Maura Rabin, M.D.; Suzanne Merrill-Nach, M.D. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/advice/a1635/677977/>