A woman may seek medical advice complaining of vaginal discharge, irritation, etc. The main differential diagnosis for these common symptoms are as follows:

The discharge may be a normal incident for many women!

Yeast infection of female genital parts

Trichomoniasis which is aa infection of the vagina caused by T.vagihalis

Bacterial vaginosis (BV)

The doctor should advice some simple tests to make proper diagnosis. The doctor may advise for a swab specimen test to establish specific diagnosis. The swab has to be taken from high up in the vagina and should contain a mixture of vaginal secretions. These swabs will be tested for:
1. A fishy odour on wet mount called as whiff test is performed by adding little potassium hydroxide to a slide containing the vaginal discharge smear. A fishy odour points towards bacterial vaginosis.

2. Due to bacterial invasion, the ph of the vaginal fliud rises and becomes more alkaline. Normally vaginal fliud is slightly acidic to control bacterial overgrowth. This test is performed by adding a small amount of the fluid to  litmus paper and test its acidity. An alkaline progress shows bacterial vaginosis.

3. A special clue cells test may be done in occasional cases. To do this test, a drop of sodium chloride is put on a glass slide with the vaginal discharge smeared on it. Then it is visualized over a microscope. If clue cells are present then a diagnosis of BV is arrived at.

Name:Tamas Das
Age:25 yrs

I am a doctor by profession and also a health writer. I like writing papers on a variety of health issues. i created this site BV Cures so that I could provide some good information on Bacterial vaginosis and its permanent natural cure.
I hope you will like this site. I will be adding more articles to it on a weekly basis. So check it out!!!