It’s a very well-known fact that women’s sexual health is a particularly underfunded and misunderstood field. Despite there having been massive strides made in the last few years, there is still an abundance of stigma, coupled with an astounding lack of education, when it comes to the trials and tribulations of the vagina. One of my pet peeves is the discourse associated with Bacterial Vaginosis (BV). But, thanks to recent research headed up by a group of fiercely intellectual women, there might be hope on the horizon.

if you arent talking about breakthrough bacterial vaginosis research rn

you arent in my orbit

— van haley (@vanhaley_yt) April 4, 2025

For a bit of context, BV is an extremely common condition, affecting around one in four women globally. Historically labelled as a bacterial imbalance, up until recently, BV had never been identified as an infection that can be transmitted sexually—meaning that treatment responsibilities have almost exclusively been put on women, and not their male partners.

Typical symptoms of BV include unusual discharge, discomfort, and a strong and unpleasant odour from the vagina. Now, I’d like to focus on the last symptom for a moment. I genuinely cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve heard a male make some sort of derogatory comment or sexist-fuelled joke about a woman’s *scent*.

BV is a legitimate issue and a medical problem that can cause daily physical and mental strain. Moreover, its mere existence has exacerbated an increasingly toxic narrative wherein men feel as though it’s acceptable to grade, judge, and shame women and their sexual organs. And the most laughable part of it is that men were the issue the whole time. Shock.

Bacterial vaginosis affects 1 in 3 women. One in THREE women. "It's just an imbalance of your pH" they say. "Just Take antibiotics and get endless yeast infections" they say.

BV is actually sexually transmitted and treating MALE PARTNERS reduces the transmission by 63%!!!

WE…

— meg (@megancharissa) April 4, 2025

So, let’s get into the meaty stuff. On 5 March 2025, The New England Journal of Medicine published a report led by a group of Australian researchers which conclusively found that recurring BV could be down to a lack of comprehensive treatment for men.

“Bacterial vaginosis affects one third of reproductive-aged women, and recurrence is common. Evidence of sexual exchange of bacterial vaginosis–associated organisms between partners suggests that male-partner treatment may increase the likelihood of cure,” the report’s summary read.

The controlled trial included over 160 randomly chosen couples (with one partner-treatment group and one control group). The one uniting factor was that all of the women had bacterial vaginosis and were in a monogamous relationship with a male partner. “In the partner-treatment group, the woman received first-line recommended antimicrobial agents and the male partner received oral and topical antimicrobial treatment (metronidazole 400-mg tablets and 2 per cent clindamycin cream applied to penile skin, both twice daily for 7 days). In the control group, the woman received first-line treatment and the male partner received no treatment (standard care). The primary outcome was recurrence of bacterial vaginosis within 12 weeks.”

The ultimate findings? When male partners were treated with both oral and topical antimicrobial alongside with the woman’s treatment, the recurrence rate of BV significantly decreased.

SCREENSHOT had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Lenka Vodstrcil, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Head of the Genital Microbiota and Mycoplasma Group at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, who worked extensively on this report.

When questioned about her initial motivations for pursuing this research, Vodstrcil stated: “Bacterial vaginosis is a really common condition. There is a treatment available but over half of women experience BV recurrence within 6 months—and up to 80 per cent experience recurrence if they report the same ongoing partner. We and others have accumulated a body of evidence to show that BV has a profile of an STI, but past partner-treatment trials failed to improve the cure. Newer evidence that BV-associated bacteria are found at two genital sites in men (in the urethra and on penile skin) and that couples share specific strains of bacteria suggested to us that we need to revisit partner treatment and target both penile sites.”

“Our trial found that reinfection from an ongoing sexual partner is a significant driver of BV recurrence, and by adding male partner-treatment to the treatment of women, we now have a simple strategy to reduce BV recurrence.”

When it came down to discussing the biggest obstacles researchers in this field face, this is what Vodstrcil had to say: “Because we don’t know the exact cause of BV, treatments and diagnostics are imprecise. We hope to use our samples to drill down and understand what is exchanged between couples to cause BV recurrence so that we can detect it and treat it more effectively.”

“It’s also important to note here that there will be some women who experience what we call ‘persistence’ after treatment—that is they might have a dense BV infection (also called a biofilm) and their treatment is unable to clear their infection. This explains why some women may have BV on and off for a long period of time even when they don’t have sex. For these women, it might be that longer courses of treatment or treatments that more effectively clear the biofilm are needed,” she continued.

Can I also just quickly say, women have been telling people that BV is sexually transmitted for years. After this research first hit headlines, it was almost as if you could hear a collective sigh ripple across the globe. These findings are so important, but why has it taken so long to get here?

I’ve been saying for time bacterial vaginosis was transmitted by men

— QuiQui🍒 𒉭 (@quiquisworld) March 20, 2025

After spending the past week learning more about BV and subsequent discussions regarding women’s sexual health, all I can really leave you with is: the more conversations we have about vaginas, the better.