Incontinence?

[electricdruid.livejournal.com]

I know there's no such thing as a stupid question but sometimes I wonder if this might be one. Not that I'm embarrassed if it is :P

Basically, my question is: how does a girl know if she's suffering from incontinence?

I'm 21, and for much of my pubescent life I've experienced discharge that stains my underwear. Often is is pale yellow, which washes out, but over time it becomes darker, more like a pale brown. Buildup, I suppose. I'm not talking years, here. I'm not keeping my underwear that long. Obviously if I've had it for years and it's stained like that, I'm going to toss it. But if I've only had the pair a few months... 

I know every woman is different, but my mother likes to declare that my "stains" are so dark and she never had any discharge like that and there must be something wrong with either me or the way I wear my underwear (her suggestion is to change my panties twice as often. She also told me to buy only dark underwear so that this doesn't happen anymore. Which is false, of course. It'll still happen, I just won't see it). My boyfriend occasionally gets uncomfortable about it when we're doing laundry at his place and asks me to throw out some of the worst offenders, telling me that when he was a kid he did his family's underwear and never noticed this with his mom's or sister's undies (TMI?).

Anyway, so I've got to thinking- what if I'm experiencing incontinence? How do I know if this is a drop or two of urine, or if it's regular discharge? Would urine be likely to color underwear in this way? Would discharge?

Comments

[kissxbangxbangx.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to add that it happens to me, too. Sometimes I notice that the crotch of my black underwear seems to have actually been bleached by my discharge, somehow! I've also had it for as long as I remember.

[fullcollapse.livejournal.com]

Same here! It never concerned me enough to actually worry, but it's good to know that it's more common than just myself.

[freckles42.livejournal.com]

That's urine doing the bleaching! Urine has been used since prehistoric days to bleach things, including furs and leather. Link! (http://www.wisegeek.com/is-it-true-that-people-can-use-urine-for-bleaching.htm)

(The more you know!)

Edited to add link.

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Or the vaginal fluid itself. The lactobacilli (http://blogs.webmd.com/womens-health/2008/06/vaginal-discharge-normal-or-not.html) in the vagina produce hydrogen perioxide, which in turn can lighten black underwear.

[neek-love.livejournal.com]

Well there ya go! Crazy lady bits, what'll they do next!

[mandy.livejournal.com]

I'm in this boat as well. I don't have many darks for underwear but some have suffered the same fate lol.

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

It's normal and even healthy. In a healthy vagina, lactobactilli (http://blogs.webmd.com/womens-health/2008/06/vaginal-discharge-normal-or-not.html) are present in pretty large quantities. Some strains of it produce hydrogen peroxide, which tends to have a bleaching effect on dark fabrics.

[kissxbangxbangx.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! I already knew from VP that it happened to other people, but I didn't know it really was bleaching it!