Brace yourself: Winter is coming — and if you’re a woman, it’s about to do a number on your vagina. One midwife told The Sun that winter vagina is a common problem during the colder months and can affect intimate relationships.
“Dry autumn and winter air depletes moisture from our bodies, leaving our skin dehydrated and cracked, and out sinuses parched,” Mary Burke, a former NHS midwife and senior clinical nurse at the London Bridge Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Clinic told The Sun.
“And while it’s an issue few will want to discuss openly, our vaginas can enter ‘drought mode’ during this time, too,” she added.
The reason: Central heating systems used to warm the indoors suck the moisture from the air — and from our skin.
“When we spend a lot of time in air conditioned rooms, or with the heating on, we’re living in air which carries very little moisture,” she added. “And the dryness we experience can often extend to every inch of our bodies — including our most private regions.”
For real? No, not for real.
But seriously, is winter vagina real?
Not all experts are convinced this is a real problem.
“Vaginas function quite well in all seasons,” Jen Gunter, MD, wrote on her blog earlier this year after Teen Vogue published an article on another seasonal affliction, summer vagina.
“The vagina maintains a steady temperature because it is inside your body and human body temperature only rises with the outside temperature when someone is suffering from heat stroke,” she continued.
Winter vagina or summer vagina isn’t a thing, but women can experience vaginal dryness “or the sensation of vagina dryness (because those are two different things), Gunter added. Those feelings “can be the result of low estrogen, be a medication side effect, and even be from a yeast infection. However, the ambient temperature and a wet bathing suit have zero impact on the vaginal ecosystem.”
“Women are not poikilotherms. The vagina maintains moisture because it is constantly producing discharge,” she continued.
So, fret not this winter — your vagina won’t dry out as the temperatures dip, just as summer penis isn’t helping men grow downstairs during the hottest times of the year.
“The only way you could temporarily dry out your vagina from heat would be aiming a hair dryer inside,” Gunter wrote. “And for the love of everything that is holy don’t do that!”
