D.VICE Sex Q & A. Flavoured condoms and/or KY warming lube has irritated me during sex. Help!

We recently used flavoured condoms and warming lube and now I have a weird discharge, what is going on?

Question;

My boyfriend and I use condoms and lube for contraception, and he recently purchased some flavoured condoms and a warming KY lube, I found it quite irritating and now have a weird discharge. Help? Help!

D.VICE Sexpert Answers;

That is not a particularly pleasant experience. Great that your boyfriend is actually purchasing condoms and lube himself, excellent, applaud him for that, however it sounds like you have reacted to one or more of either the ingredients in the KY Warming lube or the flavoured condoms or both.

 The pH balance of the vagina is really sensitive and sugars, flavours or warming chemical, can affect that balance and the body either creates a discharge to try and kind of cleanse the vagina and correct the balance or the normally healthy flora in the vagina are overwhelmed, usually by Thrush.

It is likely that you have a case of thrush and what I would recommend that you is stop using those products and try to correct the pH naturally by drinking a lot of water, avoid sugary or highly processed food and eat probiotic yoghurt -which you can also take in tablet form. Any health food shop should be able to advise. You can get a Thrush treatment from the chemist but if you can treat it naturally first it is worth a try.

You will also need to make sure you or your boyfriend get plain condoms and a hypo-allergenic lube so you have them on hand. It is possible you have a latex allergy, however if you have been using latex condoms previously without any problem this is not so likely to be the issue.

Lubricant is available in lots of different styles flavoured, warming, cooling etc.These are more of novelty style lubes with manufacturers trying to encourage people to use lubricant unfortunately many of these lubes have the opposite effect because a lot of women and also some guys have allergic reactions to them.

At D.VICE we don’t recommend you use flavoured lubricant at all, and the reason for that was we just had so many people coming to us saying that they have allergic reactions to those types of lubricants. So I would recommend that you use a hypo-allergenic water-based lubricant such as Probe or Astroglide or a hypo-allergenic silicone/water-based lube such as LubeXXX.

Probe has two different consistencies the Thick Rich has a texture that actually mimics a woman’s natural lubrication and the Silky Light which is more the consistency of saliva.
Both are tasteless, odourless and non-staining, and they are hypo-allergenic. The great thing about Probe lube, is that it reactivates with water, so if it starts to dry out at all during use, and it will eventually dry out so you don’t get left feeling wet and uncomfortable, you can actually reactivate like the next morning or a few hours later. You can just add a little bit of saliva or water and away you go again, so it’s really economical. An excellent lube. 

The other lube that is really popular that we sell at D.VICE is LubeXXX it is a silicone a water based mix, and silicone lubricants have become increasingly popular because they’re very, very thin and have quite an silky texture, and they stay lubricated forever. 
The only thing about 100% silicone lubricants, is that they aren’t water soluble and so the vagina doesn’t actually naturally flush the lube out, and so we recommend the LubeXXX because it is water soluble. So it’s a mix of silicone and water-based and still has that really nice kind of thin texture and it’s fantastic for anal play.

People often come in to D.VICE and say to us “well can I actually use baby oil or Vaseline?” I think that people often use a lot of different kind of substances, you do need to be really aware that those substances are not at all natural, baby oil is a mineral oil and can be really damaging if you absorb it through the mucous membranes, it can cause allergies as well.
Vaseline is a petroleum derived product and not something that you’d want to have actually in your vagina or on the penis as well.. 
Egg white is a natural option. Egg white is that it’s similar texture to a woman’s ovulation mucous, and all lubricant, even if it’s a non-spermicidal lubricant, slow down the sperm.
Some lubricants have spermicide in it to actually use as contraceptive - this would be listed on the bottle.

If you are trying to get pregnant any kind of lubricant my reduce your chance of conceiving, so if you want to use lubricant and try to get pregnant, you can use egg white because it’s very similar and friendly to sperm. But Lubexxx is a silicone a water based mix, and silicone lubricants have become increasingly popular because they’re very, very thin and they’re quite an oily texture, and they stay lubricated forever. The only thing about silicone lubricants, all silicone, is that they aren’t water soluble and so the vagina doesn’t actually naturally cleanse them and there is the potential for there to be concerns health wise, particularly for females, and so we recommend the Lubexxx because it is water soluble. So it’s a mix of silicone and water based but still has that really nice kind of thin texture and it’s fantastic for anal play.