As we’ve explained to you here, the researchers at Isala created a classification based on the eight most common bacteria in the swabs they examined. But of course we found many more bacteria. After all, every woman has a unique microbiome based on a complex combination of different types of bacteria.
Since more than 3,000 women participated in Isala, it was impossible for us to describe each bacterium in detail. We will certainly take this into consideration for further research. For example, we regularly found Alloscardovia (family of the Bifidobacteria), Anaerococcus and Atopobium.
However, these numbers are lower than the eight most common bacteria anyway, so it doesn’t mean you have these types in your vagina as ‘other bacteria’. Is your percentage of ‘other bacteria’ high? Then that’s absolutely nothing to panic about, it just means that your vaginal microbiome is a little more unique than most of the vaginas we’ve explored in this phase of Isala. You are not alone with that. To give you an idea, 187 women who participated in Isala had more than 50% of the bacteria in their vaginas that we refer to as ‘other’ at this stage.
The most important advice we can give you always remains the same: do you experience complaints or are you worried about something? Then contact your doctor. Within Isala we even have a separate page with more background information especially for doctors, so you can certainly refer to that.
Not sure when you might need to make an appointment with your doctor? This is a list of common complaints that may indicate a (small-scale) problem with your vaginal health:
o Redness
o Swelling
o Pain (general)
o Itching
o Burning sensation
o Increase in vaginal discharge (different from normal monthly discharge)
o Change in vaginal discharge (different color, unpleasant odor)
o Pain during sexual contact
o Bladder infection and others