Let’s Talk About It: The Vaginal Health Episode
May 5, 2026 | Episode 62
Producer’s Note: The following is an AI-generated transcript of The Wellness Conversation, an OhioHealth Podcast
SPEAKERS: Marcus Thorpe, Katie Lowe, Guest: Dr. Sarah Froman, OB/GYN, OhioHealth
Marcus Thorpe 0:06
Welcome back to another episode of The Wellness Conversation, an OhioHealth Podcast. I'm Marcus Thorpe, along with my co host, Katie Lowe, we're excited for you to join us. This is going to be a really interesting episode, because it's one of those things that really impacts half the population, yet oftentimes it gets pushed down to the bottom of the conversation.
Katie Lowe 0:23
Yeah, we're talking about vaginal health. This is one of those subjects that people tend to whisper about, or maybe they're trying to Google all the answers to their questions because they just feel embarrassed to go to their doctor and ask them. But vaginal health is obviously a huge part of overall women's wellness. Ignoring it is not going to make those questions go away.
Marcus Thorpe 0:46
Exactly right. We want to break down those barriers. We want to have those conversations, normalize the conversations. I think that's a really important part of what we're doing, so you feel empowered and not embarrassed. We're the host, but we're bringing an expert guest who is really going to break things down for us, and we are so glad that Dr. Sarah Froman and OBGYN with Ohio Health is in the studio with us. Dr Froman, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it.
Dr. Sarah Froman 1:09
You're welcome, glad to be here.
Katie Lowe 1:11
Dr Froman, before we dive into this topic, we have so many questions, but we do like to get to know our experts a bit more. Can you just tell us a little bit about your current role at Ohio Health and how you got started in this field?
Dr. Sarah Froman 1:23
Yes. So I actually got started at Riverside and did my residency right next door here, and then had a practice in Lancaster for 29 years, and recently joined OhioHealth in 2023 as part of OhioHealth physician group and practicing out of Pickerington and canal Winchester, and still Lancaster as well.
Marcus Thorpe 1:44
And I know you're busy out there, Pickerington is really going full speed ahead, so that's great news that women and families are seeking out care and finding it with you and your team. So we're we're really excited about you being here. Let's first talk about the basics. I think that's always a great place to start about any conversation, especially this one about vaginal health. So let's talk about confusion, even the anatomy of itself. Kind of trips people up. Do you find that too? Or people just come in and they're like, I don't even know where to start with this conversation.
Dr. Sarah Froman 2:13
Well, I've had heard so many nicknames over the years, and I won't share them, because someone who said those may be listening, but sometimes we doctors don't know what the person is talking about. Have to physically, you know, say, is this where it hurts, or something like that. But the anatomy, you know, really is fairly simple externally. What I tell my patients to do to actually look at themselves. If you take a mirror with a handle on it, any old mirror, and you can put it underneath your toilet seat in the front, and you can sit down, and you can actually see what's going on down there without trying to take pictures on your phone, which could be embarrassing later. So if you're looking you know at the external you have, the vulva is what's external, and the vagina is internal, and the vulva has two lips, which are called labia in Latin. So you have labia majora, the bigger ones on the side, and labia menorah are the smaller ones closer to the middle. And then you have at the top, the clitoris, and then the urethra and then the vagina. That's pretty much what it is the people get those names, usually from their parents, kind of nicknaming their parts. And girls are not born to be ashamed of themselves. They learn that. So if you name the part from the get go, when they're small children, they just know what it is, and don't have any real embarrassment when you know girls have this, boys have that. It's kind of more matter of fact.
Marcus Thorpe 3:41
Again, normalizing it, which is what we're talking about.
Dr. Sarah Froman 3:44
Yes.
Katie Lowe 3:44
I think that makes complete sense, that patients sometimes struggle to communicate even what's going on or what they're concerned about, because they just don't know the proper terminology. But again, we briefly touched on this, but I know a huge hurdle is just the stigma around this topic, and the fact that it's still something that so many women feel ashamed to talk about embarrassed. Why do you think that still exists? And what can we do to break that?
Dr. Sarah Froman 4:13
Well, I think starting with children is the best thing, because if they're normalized throughout their entire life, then they're not embarrassed. And you know, the truth of feminine hygiene is a term that they came up with to describe things for vaginal health. Because nobody wanted to say vagina, because feminine women are no more unhygienic than men, and men's hygiene is only a recent thing, I think, but every store has an aisle for feminine hygiene, so if we normalize the anatomy and normalize the conversation and not not be embarrassed.
Katie Lowe 4:50
Yeah, I wanted to also touch on something else that you had mentioned, just because, you know, I have a two year old daughter and I'm about to have another daughter that. So I'm starting to think, especially when I was kind of planning for this podcast, how to start introducing these conversations to them about their bodies and, you know, making sure that they feel comfortable, you know, advocating for their health, even if it may be about something that they feel a little embarrassed about talking about so do you have any advice or suggestions on how really it is to start talking about our bodies and having those conversations?
Dr. Sarah Froman 5:31
What the pediatricians will tell you is when they start asking is when they want to know so that that's something that you know prior to them speaking, probably not, but once they're asking questions, then they're thinking about it, and then they're ready to know what those things are all about.
Marcus Thorpe 5:48
So I had an interesting question that I know we didn't really plan for this one, but as I'm sitting here listening to this conversation between two women, and obviously the man of the conversation, can you share a little bit about kind of our role as partners, or if we have a daughter, or if we're raising a daughter by ourselves, without a mother involved, or something like that. What role do we play as males in these kind of conversations and normalizing entity? I have two sons at home of trying to make them respect what's going on and understand these conversations and the right way to have them and the wrong way to have them.
Dr. Sarah Froman 6:24
It's support for whatever they want to know. And as you know, they're getting older what you think they need to know. Many times, the kids will go to the pediatrician. I know, when I was in school, we had fifth grade education. Many of the schools, there's not really that much of an opportunity for that. So your pediatrician can help out. We'll do a reproductive health visit between like age 13 and 15. They don't need an exam, they don't need a pap smear or anything like that, but sometimes they need some knowledge that maybe the parents are uncomfortable with, yes and teaching your boys to respect the girls and girls respect the boys on both sides, really goes a lot towards preventing the fear later on.
Marcus Thorpe 7:10
All right, so many myths out there, so many things pulling you in all kinds of directions with social media or commercials or those kind of things, let's either prove or debunk some of those things that you see, first and foremost, we see, like full body deodorants or sprays or fragrances that they say or claim you need, or you need to spend money on. What's your take on those kind of things when it comes to the areas that we're talking about. And do you really need those things that everybody says, Oh, you really should buy this. The marketing machine is alive and well.
Dr. Sarah Froman 7:45
It's huge. The truth of it is the vagina is self cleaning, so water is what you should use to clean it. If you feel like you need some sort of soap, very mild, no scent like Cetaphil or basis like you really don't need that in the vagina. If it smells bad, it itches, it burns. Those are things to get addressed, because it's not normal, but those products can cause it to itch, burn. Many have fragrances within them, or substances that people react to so some of them cause the problem, and then you want a different product to solve that problem. And then the industry is making more and more, but you don't need a whole body deodorant down there.
Katie Lowe 7:45
It really is true. I just remember, you know, growing up like as adolescents, you start reading magazines and stuff like that, and you are pushed this notion that you're supposed to truly smell like flowers and like a tropical breeze down there. And so it's really understandable why so many people have, you know, believe this, even though it's not true, because there's just so much misinformation out there. So I wanted to ask you, you mentioned the word normal. So what exactly is normal down there?
Dr. Sarah Froman 7:45
So you do have mucus that changes throughout your cycle when you're in the stage of your life where you're cycling right when the fertile time is when you ovulate. It's more like egg yolk. There's a German word spin bar kite for how stretchy it is. So if you choose to put it within your fingers, it'll stretch out. And that's part of when people are doing natural family planning, to try and figure out where their fertile window is, or when they're trying to avoid getting pregnant. Same thing. And then it gets more drier and tackier right after the period. And then after menopause, it gets just dry as the desert. And there are things that can be done for that as well.
Katie Lowe 7:45
I have heard that working with so many different women and so many different stages of life, it's amazing what you overhear.
Marcus Thorpe 7:45
Yeah, I would imagine your circle is a little different than mine. But. I would imagine that as it's you mentioned some of the issues that could come up. And you say, Look, if you're having those problems with itching or irritation or those kind of things, talk us through red flags that people really need to be paying attention to. And then what's the next step after you start to discover, hey, something is going on here that I definitely need to get checked out.
Dr. Sarah Froman 7:45
The first step is stop using any kind of product and use water. You can get a squirt bottle and leave it on the back of your toilet. And actually, people spend a lot of money on wipes and wipes with different things. And if you take a couple pieces of toilet paper and squirt water on it, that's a really cheap wipe, and you don't need to have a packet of something on the back of your toilet. So if you take away all of the things that could be causing a problem and the problem persists, that's when to go to your provider and say, Hey, here's what's going on. Many women will just use like a yeast infection cream. It may or may not be yeast, and sometimes people are treating the wrong thing. So certainly, sometimes people try that first, but then, if that's not helping, to see your doctor.
Marcus Thorpe 7:45
Yeah, and there's so many products on the shelves and everywhere you look, and so unless you're really doing your homework, taking advice from the internet is probably not the way to go. I mean, how many problems do we all run into in that? And I would imagine in women's health, it's got to be, I mean, people know what they're doing. They're trying to sell you a product that you may totally
Dr. Sarah Froman 8:18
Yes, yeah. And vagicell is one of the worst. It actually has a lot of irritants within it. So people will start to use it, and they it has numbing medicine, and so you get a little bit of relief, and then the irritation from the products. So then you keep using it and you keep getting worse. So that's why first thing is to stop using anything.
Katie Lowe 11:46
Okay, I had no idea about that. That's good to know. So we kind of scratched the surface about how things may change in terms of vaginal health as you get older. Let's dive into that a little bit more. You know, as you go from your 20s to, let's say, your 50s and beyond, how does that change your vaginal health?
Dr. Sarah Froman 12:09
So mainly with the menopausal transition, once that kind of is all the way through the glands of the vagina, stop making as much of the mucus, so you get dryness and the post menopausal vagina can get very small and stenotic, so people have pain with intercourse, even the dryness can cause pain just walking around. So those are kind of the things that can happen after menopause. During the reproductive years, it's fairly similar as you go through a cycle, actually, in puberty, there you start, you know, having pubic hair, and you might start having a little bit more mucusy discharge. And that's normal. That's actually, I said, the vagina is self cleans. That mucus that you get is just those shedded skin cells from inside. So it's nothing usually abnormal, although adolescent or young kids tend to put things in there, because it's a cavity, so they can put things in there. So in younger kids, when they have a discharge, you think about, you know, what might be inside?
Marcus Thorpe 13:11
Yeah, you know, Katie's obviously about to have baby. Number two, can you talk about, you know, post pregnancy, you have your baby, you're waiting for your body to kind of get in that recovery mode and those kind of things. What should a new mom be watching paying attention to? As you know, she's raising this new child with her, hopefully partner and husband, who's doing the work that needs to be done. But what should you be looking out from the vaginal health space and making sure that you are recovering the right way?
Dr. Sarah Froman 13:46
Well immediately after delivery, make sure that you know there's no abnormal discharge or increasing pain there may be stitches that have to heal, and allowing those time to heal at least six to eight weeks before having sex is a big thing, and when women are breastfeeding, the healing process is slowed. So sometimes we need to help that healing process along with it, because the hormones are a little bit different with breastfeeding and giving yourself time to rest, because that is they say, it's the toughest job you'll ever love having a newborn, and it's exhausting. And you just when that baby sleeps, sleep, don't think, Oh, I got to do the laundry, I got to do the dishes. Nope, those can wait sleep. So self care is a big thing postpartum. And to watch for, it's not vaginal health, but signs of depression and postpartum blues very important to you know, seek help if those aren't improving after the first week or two.
Marcus Thorpe 14:44
I'm looking out for you here.
Katie Lowe 14:47
Like, Okay. Marcus,
Marcus Thorpe 14:48
Good co host, I see you.
Katie Lowe 14:49
You do. I wanted to go back to one other thing you had mentioned. So we talked about, you know, as you get older, things tend to dry out down there is that considered, just like a common. Symptom of perimenopause and menopause, and what, what other symptoms do you experience during that stage of life?
Dr. Sarah Froman 15:08
A whole host of them. So with I tell people with perimenopause, your hormones are doing this up and down and up and down. So some days you may have no menopausal type symptoms, and some days they might be terrible. So one of the big things going on out there right now is testing hormones. It's all over the internet. I want my hormones tested. I have people who are 22 years old, they want their hormones tested see if they're going through menopause. That's highly unlikely. And if your hormones are going up down, up down, even every hour testing them is not helpful in the majority of cases. So it's a big money maker to do all these hormone tests, and the the internet certainly pushes it. But I can tell more by talking to the patient what's going on and what their symptoms are than by any number on the on the paper. But you know, menopause can bring on the hot flashes and night sweats, the vaginal changes, memory changes, mood changes. So it's huge, but there are definitely things that you can do both medications, non medications, hormonal, non hormonal, that there's a actually midlife clinic that Ohio Health has started that is overwhelmed with patients, because there are so many people, their needs have not been addressed in this area, and I see people for that as well, but the midlife clinic is a great resource if you feel like you're not being heard by your providers.
Marcus Thorpe 16:33
I think about our podcast that we've done now, you know, 60 plus episodes, and this topic comes up in every single one of them, it seems like is diet and exercise, but we're always talking about, oh, I want to get bigger muscles, or I want to lose belly fat, or I want to do all these things. So let's talk about vaginal health, diet and exercise. What role does it play in making sure that we are healthy and feeling good in all of our private spaces?
Dr. Sarah Froman 17:01
So there's the pelvic floor, which is very affected by pregnancy and from aging changes. There's a new, well, it's not really that new, but pelvic floor physical therapy is a thing that many people don't know about, and when you have say your bladder isn't working right after having a baby, you can go and help train your bladder. So we don't necessarily go straight to surgery for that and always, you know, a healthy diet and other exercises are definitely recommended, but pelvic floor after having a baby with Kegel exercises and those things are very important.
Katie Lowe 17:36
That's good to know. I know you're looking at me.
Marcus Thorpe 17:39
Better get working out right away.
Katie Lowe 17:41
I wanted to ask also, when it comes to, you know, we've talked about the myths and things change as we age and all of that, but what about preventative care? I know there are lots of routine screenings that maybe our listeners should be aware of, or, you know, just like check ups for vaginal health. What? What do they need to do in terms of navigating preventative care and making sure they're taking on they're staying on top of things?
Dr. Sarah Froman 18:12
So starting with, you know, the teen years, or whenever someone may be sexually active once a year at least to have a STD check, or now it's STI, is the right terminology. And if people have multiple partners, then every three to six months for some and then later on, we actually now start pap smears at age 21 that didn't used to be you used to be as soon as you're sexually active, we did a pap. So that's a new recommendation, and then it's between every year to every five years, depending on the situation after that for pap smears. But we do recommend once a year an annual well woman exam, which doesn't necessarily have to contain a pap, but just kind of goes over all the reproductive health and female health, and it's all ages. I've had so many people I see in the grocery store. Oh, I don't need to see you anymore. I'm done having my kids.
Speaker 1 19:07
We need to have a lesson in Kroger right now, because that's not the end of your reproductive or of your GYN health anyway.
Marcus Thorpe 19:16
I think of the behavioral health space, we've had plenty on our podcast. Dr Shabbing was here recently talking about stigma and how things have kind of been chipped away over the years, and more people are talking about it, and celebrities are talking about it, which also helps kind of get the message across. You said you've been at this for a while. Have you seen changes in the amount of people who are willing to share more or open up a little bit more about discomfort or worry or things like that than maybe you had 10-15, years ago.
Dr. Sarah Froman 19:47
I think our younger generation, yes, in my older patients may still be a little reticent, but I think the younger generation is coming out and they're more proactive with their wants, and it's a change in taking care of labor patients, because it used to be just whatever the doctor said, you know, it's time to check your cervix, and now it's, is it okay if I do that? And sometimes, no, I don't want that right now. So it's patient autonomy is a whole big thing.
Marcus Thorpe 20:18
I love that. Yeah, we can definitely learn a lot from our young people. I do like that. They're very active in their healthcare journey. They're very smart. They research, they look things up, hopefully from reputable places. I know it can be a real challenge sometimes, but I do think that this younger generation is way more engaged, I think, than I ever was, even and I'm almost 50 years old so.
Katie Lowe 20:40
Well, and speaking of you know, we hope that everyone's getting their information from reputable places. Can you give us a few resources for maybe anyone listening who just wants to learn a little bit more, in general, about ways that they can support their vaginal health?
Dr. Sarah Froman 20:56
So there's acog.org which is the American College of OBGYN is has all things OB and GYN, and there's a lot of patient education there. And then for the perimenopause and menopause, age menopause.org, very simple. And there are a couple of people to follow online who follow the science Dr Lauren Stryker is a hilarious gynecologist who's a menopause specialist. She does a lot of blogs, and she has several books that have interesting names, hot flash, hell. So she that's where I got a lot of my talks that I give to menopause patients, ideas from her. And then there's a Dr. Beachgem, who's a pediatrician.
Katie Lowe 21:45
Can you spell that?
Dr. Sarah Froman 21:47
B, E, A, C, H, G, E, M,
Katie Lowe 21:50
Thank you.
Dr. Sarah Froman 21:50
I think she has Instagram and Facebook, so I try to tell people, stay off TikTok.
Katie Lowe 21:56
Okay.
Dr. Sarah Froman 21:56
There are way too many influencers that have no medical training whatsoever and come up with things that can be harmful.
Marcus Thorpe 22:04
Yes, they want the clicks. We'd like to end our sessions here talking about three actionable steps that somebody can take right now when it comes to their vaginal health. What would you suggest that people could actually do right now that would make a world of difference for them and their partners and their family and everything that they're trying to do moving forward.
Dr. Sarah Froman 22:23
So the first one was just water. Use water to wash those parts, put a squirt bottle, or bidets are kind of all the rage. Now. You can get a really inexpensive bidet on Amazon and just squirt off after you go, and then you don't feel like you need a wipe or a spray or something like that. And something the pediatrician told my kids that we should tell everybody, wipe front to back, women front to back, because you can introduce bacteria from the back to the front and then cause some problems for yourself. And I kind of had four things. One was wear cotton underwear. Nylon holds in the moisture and can increase your risk of getting yeast infections and things like that. And the fourth one was use condoms.
Katie Lowe 23:08
Yeah.
Marcus Thorpe 23:09
Clean and safe.
Dr. Sarah Froman 23:10
Yes.
Marcus Thorpe 23:11
Right.
Katie Lowe 23:11
Okay, well, thank you so much. Dr. Froman, one of the things you mentioned too, we're in the midst of potty training, so I'm already working on the front to back concept right now with my little one, we just thank you so much for coming on the show again. We know you're incredibly busy, but this is a topic, again that still has some stigma, and I think you really helped to give your expertise and clear up some of those misconceptions that may hopefully are around a little bit less than when I was growing up reading a bunch of magazines. But yeah, I think you're just going to help our some of our listeners really feel more empowered to take control of their health.
Marcus Thorpe 23:51
Yeah, it doesn't have to be taboo. This needs to be something that you're willing to talk about with the person you trust the most, which would be that person right in front of you that went to school for all these years and knows exactly what you should be asking and hearing so thanks, Dr Froman, we appreciate it.
Dr. Sarah Froman 24:03
No, you're welcome. Thanks for having me.
Marcus Thorpe 24:05
Absolutely. If you'd like to learn more about vaginal health, or if you want to schedule with an OBGYN, maybe for the first time, you can go to ohiohealth.com so much information there. Find the doc pages and so much more. Also, it's where you can find this podcast at ohiohealth.com
Katie Lowe 24:20
Thanks for joining us.