Mucous membranes and glands in our body produce a lot of secretions, which have their own separate functions. The secretions protect our body by forming a thin lining over the skin or mucous membrane. It also helps to keep the mucous membrane or skin moist and flexible. The best example to understand is saliva in the mouth. If this secretion becomes very low, everyone will feel the dryness. The skin may crack thus paving way for infections. Similarly, vaginal glands also secrete some secretions to keep the organ moist, flexible and to prevent it from infection by its acidic nature. At ovulation time, the acidic nature of the secretion gets altered to alkali nature by hormones to allow the male sperm to survive for fertilisation. If not, the sperms will find it difficult to thrive and reach the ovum. Also, secretions of the vagina help in lubrication during the sexual act.
Leucorrhoea is a medical term for white discharge which is an excessive secretion from the female reproductive tract especially from the vagina or cervix or both. It is very common in females nowadays. It could be embossing, painful and may cause lot of discomfort, stress and even affect the sexual preferences and libido. It may be mild to severe, and varies from person to person.
Leucorrhoea is mainly classified into two types:
It is an excessive discharge or secretions of a normal vagina. It generally occurs among teenage girls due to hormonal imbalance during puberty, at the time of ovulation period of the menstrual cycle and before periods. In case of adults, it occurs during the course of sexual excitement and pregnancy.
It is a discharge occurring due to disease or malfunction of the female reproductive tract. It needs immediate attention, cleanliness and treatment. Ignoring pathological leucorrhoea may lead to serious problems like infertility and complications of uterus. The nature of discharge varies from thin to thick bloody discharge with foul smell. This condition is commonly present in both the cases of vaginitis and cervicitis.
