Vaginas, Vulvas, Discharge and all things Vaginal health w/ Special Guest Jessica Nazareth

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Period Chats Podcast. Today we’re talking with Jessica Nazareth, a holistic sex coach who is also in training to become a naturopathic doctor.

Today’s topic is vaginal health, and Jess is literally the perfect expert to enlighten us about this important aspect of wellness. She started her undergrad in health sciences, and soon delved into holistic medicine.

Jess grew up familiar with nutrition and traditional Chinese medicine because her family of origin utilized its principles in their own lives.

So when she was diagnosed with PCOS, she found these practices helpful in balancing her own hormones and successfully managing the condition.

Jess has been studying biomedical sciences in Toronto, and her passion for sharing her extensive knowledge, empowering others and treating each individual from the root cause is so refreshing.

Her focus on reproductive health and vaginal and sexual wellness has led her to develop her own courses on the topics. As we all know, sex ed sucked. And on top of that, many medical and health care professionals still lack training in vaginal and sexual wellness.

Jessica and I believe that holistic and naturopathic medicine can contribute some much-needed insight and wisdom to the medical field, and all of our wellness journeys.

One thing that has slowed down awareness about - and love for - our bodies is the shame that society has historically placed on the topics of vaginal health and sexual wellness.

At one point Lysol was even recommended to people with vaginas to use in order to prevent their partner from leaving them (excuse me?!?) and, also problematically, to change natural bodily odor with its ammonium hydroxide and synthetic fragrance. Yikes.

But in the Period Chats community, we know that vaginal health includes our own natural self-cleaning eco-system, and that the vulva even changes and evolves because of time, hormones, and other factors.

In preparation for this episode, we got TONS of questions around discharge, mucous, vaginal health, appearance, cyclical changes, and bacterial balance (flora).

Jessica explains the difference between discharge and mucous, and how it all works. Plus she addresses the existence of “cross talk” with our blood stream (very cool).

We touch on allergies and immune considerations, and how chemicals can be easily absorbed through the skin in this area.

We also address questions about menstrual cups, the over-marketing of wipes, and reconsidering some habits and routines to support our bodies.

Moral of the story: our vaginas aren’t flawed, they have reasons for everything they do, and we can celebrate our awesome bodies.

I can’t wait to have Jess back on another episode soon; she is a wealth of fascinating and helpful info.

Check out Jess’s free resource about mindset and pleasure:

jessicanazareth.com/the-pleasure-mindset-guide/

Follow her on instagram: @jessicaanazareth