After publishing my latest article on 9 daily habits for a healthy vagina, I thought one of the tips needed a bit more explanations. Indeed why should you pay attention to your toilet paper?
And what has this got to do with hormonal health and woman’s health?
Read on to find out more.
Toilet paper can disrupt our intimate ecology
Toilet paper may contain a raft of not so desirable ingredients. And as I tell my clients, to rpeserve our intimate flora is key for our general hormonal health and fertility in particular.
We want to limit our exposure to endocrine disruptors as much as possible and toilet paper choice is one of those very easily actionable choice that has an impact daily!
So let’s get to the bottom of it: most toilet paper often include:
– formaldehyde: especially in thick and absorptive versions…it is used to improve the ‘wet value’ of toilet paper, may lead to allergic reactions and is a known carcinogen… vaginas are a highly absorbent area… (PMID: 20393094)
– chlorine bleach: the whiter & softer your toilet paper, the more chance it has to have been processed with chlorine bleach, which may lead to irritations or allergies and worsen conditions like vulvovaginitis aka vulvitis or vaginitis (inflammation or infection of the vulva or vagina which often shows up as itching, burning, redness or swelling)
– fragrance: usually contain endocrine disruptors who can cause havoc to our hormonal balance, and really are they needed? For sensitive individuals their presence may lead to vulvitis and may disrupt the normal pH of your vagina, which then make infections more likely to happen
– dyes: I mean let’s redecorate the bathroom with something else than tint coordinated toilet paper.
5 tips to choose a toilet paper that respect your hormonal balance
In plain English and in a nutshell, there are a few things to avoid: such as extra soft, extra white, embossed, thicker and absorptive expensive brands.
– choose alternatives which are:
- scent-free
- dye-free
- in order of preference: unbleached, TCF (totally chlorine-free) or ECF (elemental chlorine-free: meaning it uses chlorine dioxide, preventing the release of toxic compounds such as dioxins that go into the conventional bleaching process with elemental chlorine gas)
- bamboo (naturally super soft, hypoallergenic, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and more sustainable than cutting down trees)
- preferably not recycled (as the recycling process involves de-inking process and could contain traces of BPA)
A few bamboo toilet papers to have a look at:
@nakedsprout.uk (unbleached, not recycled, no individual wrapper)
@Bumboo_uk (TCF bleached, not recycled, individual wrapper)
@whogivesacrap (ECF bleached , not recycled, individual wrapper) * they also have a recycled version (not bamboo), so choose carefully
PS: I am not an affiliate of any of those brands! I just find it useful to have actual products to choose from!
Happy toilet time!
