Gardnerella vaginitis

Gardnerella vaginitis is an infection of urogenital tract caused by Gardnerella vaginalis bacteria. It is transmitted sexually or, more rarely, in household way, and mostly affects women.

Gardnerella vaginitis most often affects mucous coats of urethra, vagina, and cervical canal. Patients experience burning pain and itching of external genitals and thick or rarely liquid greyish or greenish discharge with unpleasant odor from the vagina.

Affected mucous coats of urogenital tract gain pinky-red color and become moderately edematous. Vaginal walls are often glued together throughout their length. Discharge accumulates in fornices of vagina. Discharge from cervical canal of uterus is not profuse, discharge from the urethra is meager. Sometimes Gardnerella vaginalis penetrates into uterine cavity. This negatively affects conception and pregnancy course. The bacteria can also cause purulent lesion of fetus and puerperal sepsis.

Gardnerella live in the vagina of any healthy woman. Normally their amount is very small, there are literally just several bacteria. Such amount of bacteria cannot be determined by any kind of analysis.

Gardnerella vaginitis in women is always caused by disturbance of normal vaginal microflora. This can happen because of various reasons. The most significant of them are momentary or chronic loss of immunity, various changes of hormonal background (pregnancy, labor, abortion, puberty), change of climate, dietary intake, and many others.

Very big amount of Gardnerella can cause inflammation of external genitals, vagina, and cervix of the uterus. It declares itself as burning pain and colic in genitals, dryness in the vagina and pain during sexual act.

Infection most often affects sexually active women who do not use barrier contraception methods. The disease is often found in women afflicted with chlamydia or gonococcal cervicitis. Infection of a pregnant woman can cause transplacental infection of the fetus.

Incubation period is 3-10 days. Symptoms of the disease appear after it. Mixed infections are often encountered. Gardnerella vaginitis can affect both men and women. Although the disease is encountered in men rarely, they can be infection carriers.