Vagina as tar filter?

[sparksdelcielo.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is going to sound a little bit out there but it's the only thing I can think of to make sense of this. In the last week or so I've been having brown discharge, almost like very oxidized spotting..but not. I was able to keggle quite a bit of it out today, but it looked more like flem from a really bad cold more than blood. I've thought about what in the world it could be - I'm on birth control (and near the end of the three weeks, so it's kind of unlikely for it to be really old blood), but I am taking anti-malarial drugs (I'm studying abroad), but it seems unlikely that it would cause something now after being on them for two months. My diet and water source changed radically, but again, that's two months ago, going on three. The only thing I can think of is in the last week I've been smoking socially (normally I don't, at all) and that my body is processing the chemicals and tar and trying to flush it out of my system anyway that it can. Has this happened to anyone else? Insight? I mean, I know cigarettes are bad for you (obviously), but damn. Who knew.

Comments

[appolonia.livejournal.com]

I smoked for about three years, and not only didn't notice anything you're describing happening to my vagina, but when I quit, there was also no difference in my girly bits. Although it would be interesting if there was a connection.

[sparksdelcielo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I may be completely full of it, but I'm at a loss for what's going on down there and why I suddenly have brown gunk coming out for days. I'm even in a long distance relationship, so seriously nothing has gone near the area. O.o

[appolonia.livejournal.com]

Definitely odd. I'm interested to see if anyone else has ever experienced the same thing!

[agentfordead.livejournal.com]

Where are you studying abroad?

[sparksdelcielo.livejournal.com]

Argentina

[myrcwood-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly not an expert, but I'm reasonably positive that what you are suggesting is physically impossible.

[sparksdelcielo.livejournal.com]

Not really, it's just another mucus membrane.

[myrcwood-rose.livejournal.com]

'K, you're right, almost nothing is completely impossible, but having (unfortunately) been a smoker for seventeen years, if this was possible I would expect to have experienced it before, or at least heard of it. I have heard of people, especially those on BC, having extreme bouts of thick brown to black discharge, so I'm still relatively sure that's what you are experiencing, as apposed to tar-crotch.

[snowmentality.livejournal.com]

Albeit one that is completely unconnected to your respiratory system. Nose, throat, mouth, even ears -- that's all hooked together to the system that's actually taking in the smoke. The vagina is not.

[sparksdelcielo.livejournal.com]

That's all hooked together to the system that's actually taking in the smoke. The vagina is not.

Right, I paid attention during that part of anatomy. :-p

[tehfanglyfish.livejournal.com]

This is not at all helpful, but I love your academia icon!

[paperispatient.livejournal.com]

Me too. :)

[snowmentality.livejournal.com]

It could very well just be spotting. Sometimes I will spot on BC just randomly. Honestly, the added physical stress of smoking might contribute to that -- not that your body is directly processing the tar through your vagina, but that the strain of processing the chemicals and tar has kicked your hormone balance a little weird, and caused spotting. You're under other physical stresses too -- traveling, the anti-malarials, the food/water change -- and maybe this is just the point where you're starting to see the effects in your cycle.

(P.S. -- just fyi, it's actually "kegel" and "phlegm." Those are both such weird words!)

[ledove.livejournal.com]

That happens to me all the time. It's usually old blood.

[mangojellytoast.livejournal.com]

I get this sometimes a few days before my period starts properly and I'm not a smoker. Sometimes I put my cup in thinking my period is about to start and I get this instead, it's chocolate brown and kind of a sludge-like consistency (gross, I know). It doesn't happen all the time, just occasionally. Then the last day of my period I get the same consistency, a little bit redder of a color.

I really don't think it has anything to do with tar or smoking, unless someone's been blowing cigarette smoke into your vagina.

[sparksdelcielo.livejournal.com]

It's not blood and I'm a few days away from finishing my HBC for the month. More than likely, it's my body processing a combination of things. But yeah, it's all just kind of gross, so who knows.

[poppleshatesyou.livejournal.com]

I'm also another smoker who has never experienced anything like that directly relating to my smoking...but who knows, it could be the way your body is reacting to smoking? But it really does sound like breakthrough bleeding to me, which can definitely be gunky/sludge/snot like sometimes (i notice breakthrough bleeding to be particularly snot like if i was aroused at any point in the day too) and the brownness of it all just sounds like old (oxidized) blood. The fact that you are near the end of your HBC 3 weeks and the anti-malaria drugs could also be playing a much bigger role then you are giving them credit for. i'm not a doctor by any means, but i do think the brown discharge has more to do with either of those, then it does to social smoking.

[tokio.livejournal.com]

I've been stacking my pills for the past three months, and I'm having a "period" that is exactly like the one you're describing. It came a day early, I skipped my sugar pills and went straight into the next pack, and it's been here for two weeks. I also smoke like it's my day job, and I'm relatively sure that they're unrelated.

[pygmybugs.livejournal.com]

I smoke like a chimney, and the only time tarry discharge comes out of my vagina is when my cycle is out of whack.

I'd bet that the anti-malarials might be tinkering with your HBC a little. They're pretty hairy meds.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, smoking does not affect vaginal discharge in that way. (It all ends up in your lungs, heh.) I've been smoking a pack or more for the last eight years, and it does not affect discharge like that.

It sounds to me just like spotting combined with maybe some other funky bodily stuff going on that's making your discharge quite thick. (HBC can do that as well.)