It’s easy to keep your vagina clean without making it smell like a flower shop. You just need to shower or wash every day with a mild soap and plenty of warm water. Some girls like to take warm baths during their periods to help relieve cramps.

“We find that Caulobacter crescentus cells can recover their pre-stimulus growth rates and undergo dramatic changes in cell shape,” the team writes in their new paper. “Upon antibiotic removal, cells recover their original forms over multiple generations.”

Some of the ways that bacteria become resistant to antibiotics is through changes in the bacteria’s genome. For example, bacteria can pump the antibiotics out, or they can break the antibiotics down. They can also stop growing and divide, which makes them difficult to spot for the immune system.

Your body uses white blood cells to fight off the bacteria and viruses that invade your body and make you sick. In the gif below you can see a white blood cell called a neutrophil chase down a Staphylococcus aureus bacterium.

Baking soda may also have a positive effect on vaginal pH. A 2014 study found that baking soda killed Candida cells that lead to yeast infections. Baking soda has also been found to have general antifungal affects.

Discharge is a normal part of a woman’s menstrual cycle, but yellow discharge can be a sign of an infection, such as an STI. If your discharge smells bad, is chunky or frothy, or you have other genital symptoms, you should see a doctor.

Recognizing Normal and Abnormal Discharge

Some girls experience a small to moderate amount of clear or white vaginal discharge that starts about 6-12 months before their first period. This is a normal response to growing amounts of the hormone estrogen in the body.

The extra discharge is due to a boost in estrogen production and increased blood flow early in pregnancy, she says. When normal, it should be somewhat thick, clear to white in color, and odorless.