As a women I have never really been embarrassed talking about women’s health or my intimate areas. In fact I can actually say vagina out loud without laughing. I am more likely to burst into a fit of giggles at someone calling their vagina a tuppence or frou frou, than I am anything else. So I am delighted to be working with Canesten and their #GetComfortable with intimate health and thrush campaign in raising awareness women’s intimate health.

In my house, I have a vagina and the boys have a penis and testicals, sometimes know as a willie and balls as they are getting older and that is what they are called at school! We do not giggle about the names of our intimate areas, but we sometimes giggle about their functions and habits! I was really keen raising two boys that they felt OK to discuss and use the correct terminology, I want them to know that their body is theirs and nothing to be ashamed of and to feel the same way about girls bodies. I think a lot of this is down to the way that I was brought up, my feminine hygiene products were never hidden away and my Dad didn’t even bat an eyelid at buying tampons.

I am going to lay my cards on the table here and say that I am very familiar with thrush and with Canesten. I have suffered with it since being a small child, in fact every time a have had to have a course of antibiotics since being small I have developed thrush and as I got older my periods have even been know to trigger thrust.

Thrush is a really common vaginal yeast infection and it is so common that three out of four women will experience it and contrary to common misconception it is not a sexually transmitted infection.

I am one of those lucky kids, who’s parents picked up on my thrush really early and knew as soon as I started to look uncomfortable or itch that it was time to reach for the cream. Thrush wasn’t a dirty word in my home growing up, neither was vagina. It is important to me as a parent and a women that we talk about intimate health. My parent’s also worked hard at figuring out my triggers, which included bath products, nylon knickers (or tights) antibiotics and wiping the wrong way after the loo when I was small ( you have to wipe front to back after going to the toilet).

Get comfortable with women’s intimate health

I have to say that the Canesten website is a really informative site with lots of fab information and resources. in fact I learned a lot from their web site about conditions I had never heard of before such as bacterial vaginosis (BV).

I love Canestan’s promise to women

“We believe that if you feel more comfortable with your own body, you are more likely to reach your full potential throughout your life. And we want you to be unstoppable so you can focus on the things that really matter.
That’s why Canesten is committed to helping women on their life journey, reassuring them with knowledge and innovative solutions to keep them in control of their intimate health. So, let’s forget crossed legs, worried glances, frantic symptom searching and embarrassing conversations. Now it’s time for you to get comfortable.

We shouldn’t be embarrassed by our bodies. They do amazing things, such as birthing babies and watching the sun rise and set. We also should be teaching our children not to have hang ups about their bodies too, along with the fact that they bodies are amazing and that they are in control of them.