Women should thoroughly clean their genital area with an appropriate cleanser after bathing in a hot spring, a dermatologist said yesterday, adding that a survey showed 72 percent of Taiwanese women have experienced genital itching or irritation.
The survey — conducted by a social media platform between late November and early last month among 300 women aged between 18 and 40 — found that up to 72 percent of respondents had experienced genital itching and 51 percent had noticed a peculiar smell originating from their genital region.
The survey showed that many women have experienced genital itching more than once, with the problem occurring irregularly or regularly, for example, before menstration or during certain seasons.
The survey also showed that 52.7 percent of respondents said that they enjoyed bathing in hot springs during the winter months, with 27.3 percent saying that they bathed in hot springs more than once per month during winter.
Yang Chin-yi (楊靜宜), a dermatologist at Taipei Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, said that the warm and wet environment of hot springs can cause skin infections or aggravate existing wounds and fungal infections on the skin.
“Seasonal changes or the dryness of winter can trigger eczema, even around the genitals,” she said.
“If dry and fragile skin is soaked in hot water for a long time, the person might also develop eczematous dermatitis,” which will cause itching or even inflammation if scratched, she added.
“Although skin around the genitals has its self-regulating functions, using cleansers that do not further harm or cause a burden to the genital skin can help it reach a healthy, balanced condition faster,” Yang said.
She suggested that women clean their genital area with gentle and natural cleansers, such as the plant-based ingredients lauramidopropyl betaine or alkyl polyglucoside, rather than chemical compounds such as sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate.
Yang said that as vaginal pH levels are usually slightly acidic, women should also look for cleansers that have a pH level of about four to avoid irritation to the genital area.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,