How do I know if I have bacterial vaginosis?
If you have bacterial vaginosis, you may have one or all of the following: • vaginal discharge that’s more than your normal amount • discharge that’s gray and smells “fishy” • soreness of the vulva and vagina Sometimes your health professional can diagnose bacterial vaginosis just from the symptoms and no tests are needed. But it’s often really hard to tell one type of vaginal infection from another. Two simple tests will help your health professional figure out what you’ve got. In the first test, your health professional will look at a sample of your vaginal discharge under the microscope. If there are vaginal cells covered with a certain kind of bacteria, that means you have bacterial vaginosis. In the second test, your health professional will send a sample of your discharge to the lab for a culture. The lab will test it to find out exactly what kind of infection you have. Getting a culture can be especially helpful if you don’t get better after treatment. Maybe the wrong diagnosis
