Dr. Jackie may be very well-known for being herself on Bravo’s reality series “Married to Medicine,” however in real life, she’s a practicing OBGYN and has been practicing for more than two decades. Rolling out got the chance to catch up with Dr. Jackie at the rolling out offices in Atlanta and spoke with her about her specialty: the vagina. Read below as she takes us on an aromatic journey through the grocery store aisles and relates the different aromas that the vagina may have to very specific food items found in the grocery store, such as bread, fish and fruit. Chime in below in the comment section to let us know what you think about what Dr. Jackie has to say.
Dr. Jackie: “Hi. I’m Dr. Jackie. I have been an OB/GYN for 22 years, practicing here in Atlanta for 18 years and my specialty is the vagina. Now, who doesn’t want to know about the vagina? Men, women, everybody wants to know about the vagina. It’s a little secret that everybody likes to know about.
“So, let me tell you the first thing. It is very normal for the vagina to have an aroma. Every woman wants her vagina to smell like the produce department: pineapples, strawberries, oranges – it’s not supposed to smell like that. It should have kind of a musky odor, and I didn’t say musty, I said musky: m-u-s-k-y. Why is that? The vagina is made up of squamous epithelial cells, and you got all kinds of glands there and you really want them there because they lubricate us. And when the epithelial cells and the glands mix and that lactobacillus that nobody wants to talk about, that should be there, you get this musky odor. Now, your day to day activities can change your vaginal odors; what you eat, or who eats with you. And who you share it with. And which vitamins you’re taking, which foods you eat; that can all change the way the vagina smells. So, don’t be embarrassed to talk to your doctor every time you go in. … Make sure you tell me before I walk out the door what’s really going on with your vagina, and who’s been visiting your vagina.
“So, let me take you down the grocery store aisle. If you’ve ever had the smell of warm bread down there, it’s a yeast infection. Irritation, burning, itching, that’s all yeast. Easily treated. You can try over the counter, and if that doesn’t work, call me.
“Now, if you think you’re in the seafood department, that’s not good. Salmon, shrimp, catfish, that’s not good. You really need to call your doctor. However, it’s called bacterial vaginosis, and it typically has this milky white to beige discharge, and a strong fishy odor. Well, you haven’t caught an STD, so you really don’t need to confront anyone about that, it is easily treated. However, if it smells like road kill, or something’s died in there, you probably need to call me, because believe it or not, you don’t know how many times I’ve seen women with retained tampons! You guys forget to take your tampons out! I think you need a reminder! I should create an app to remind you to take your tampons out. However, if it’s been there for days, sometimes even weeks, it’s a really, really, really bad odor. The problem is you can create and develop toxic shock syndrome, and it kills, it’s sepsis. Gets in your blood stream, you’re really sick, you’re hot, you’re clammy, you feeling really bad; get to the doctor immediately!
“Some of the other things in the vagina is food. You’d be surprised how many of us don’t break down the oils in fish, or onions, garlic, asparagus, you’ll smell just like that. Don’t get worried, nobody’s done anything. Now, if you’ve been playing with the one-eyed monster, and you’ve not covered it up, and you don’t know him well, well, that can be something different.
“We’ll talk about gonorrhea and chlamydia and those other things on another take, but this is all about the grocery store. Warm bread, salmon, asparagus, pineapples, oranges, you can taste like that as well. So, you’ve heard of rum punch? Well, it’s real. If you create this mixture of pineapples, sunflower seeds, and a few other things, I can’t think of them at the moment, and you drink that a few hours, a few days before you’re going to partake of some activities that I won’t discuss right now, you’ll taste just like that.
“So, do know that the vagina is supposed to have an odor, but it shouldn’t be offensive and nobody should be able to smell that but you, unless they’re there visiting down under. Have fun. Call me if you get in trouble. Thank you!”
