In the afterglow of successful fecal transplants, researchers are now sniffing around vaginal fluids for the next possible bodily product to improve health—and they’re roused by the possibilities.
Vaginal fluid transplants could “revolutionize the way we view and treat conditions affecting the female reproductive tract,” researchers at Johns Hopkins wrote in a recent study on vaginal microbiota transplants (VMTs). If they work as researchers hypothesize, they could rub out many common problems at once. And based on what we know of vaginas, they could be far less messy than transplants involving poop.
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[W]omen can develop a common medical condition called bacterial vaginosis. This is linked to a range of problems including increased risk of urinary tract infections, greater susceptibility to getting and spreading sexually transmitted infections, issues with infertility, and preterm birth. Bacterial vaginosis is estimated to affect around 30% of US women aged 14 to 49.Related on the SLP
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A standard treatment for bacterial vaginosis is antibiotics, but the condition can relapse in as much as 70% of cases within 3 months. The hope of VMTs is that they could restore a healthy, simple vaginal microbiome and wipe out all of those risks in one clean stroke.
Read full, original post: Transplanting poop can be beneficial—swapping vaginal fluids may be even better
