Ob/Gyns Explain That Stuff in Your Underwear at the End of the Day

Plus, signs something is up with your discharge.
Back view of a woman in underwear and longsleeved top throwing her arms in the air
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There’s a universal truth that all people with a vagina know, but rarely talk about: At the end of the day, there’s going to be some stuff in the crotch of your underwear. How much vaginal discharge there is and what it looks like can vary, but it’s unlikely that your undies are always going to be completely spotless before you toss them into the laundry hamper.

Since you’re probably not chatting about discharge with your friends at happy hour (but more power to you if you are), you might not be sure whether this is normal. Don’t worry—it is. “Most women will have discharge in their underwear at the end of day,” Suzanne Fenske, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at Mount Sinai Health System, tells SELF.

In fact, it’s kind of unusual if you don’t regularly have some vaginal secretions making their mark in your underthings, because discharge is most often a sign that your vagina is staying healthy. “It’s like saliva in your mouth—it should be there,” Maura Quinlan, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells SELF.

Your discharge is a clue that your vagina is cleaning itself properly.

Your vagina is a delicate environment. It’s constantly working to stay lubricated, maintain its pH balance, and keep good vs. bad bacteria in check, Jessica Shepherd, M.D., a minimally-invasive gynecologic surgeon at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, tells SELF. Self-cleansing through discharge is one of the things your vagina does to achieve these goals. That discharge usually comes from the vagina itself and mucus made by your cervix, the low, narrow portion of your uterus, Dr. Fenske explains.

Since discharge does such a stellar job of cleaning your vagina, you don’t need to do anything to help it out. That means no “special” products marketed towards making your vagina cleaner—things like douches can just upset your natural pH balance and promote irritation and infection.

Your discharge will usually fluctuate throughout the month—except if you’re on hormonal birth control containing estrogen.

“Normal vaginal discharge can change in consistency and color throughout your cycle,” Dr. Fenske says. Here’s why it can look wildly different at seemingly random times.

Let’s start with your period, which is when the shedding of your endometrial lining completely overtakes any normal discharge changes you’ll see. After that, you may experience a few “dry” days when you’re producing very little cervical mucus, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (But since your vagina is still lubricating and cleaning itself, you might still see some discharge—just less since there’s not as much cervical mucus in the mix.)

Then, when one of your eggs starts preparing for ovulation, your estrogen levels rise, and you may see an uptick in cervical mucus in your underwear. This can look white, yellow, or cloudy, and if you touch it, it’ll probably feel sticky. The closer you get to ovulation, the more your estrogen levels rise, and the thinner and slipperier this discharge will typically become. This is to allow sperm to travel more easily through your vagina and into your uterus, Dr. Shepherd says. “Your body is in a default to get pregnant,” she explains. It may look like you spilled egg whites into your underwear, and that’s completely normal, Dr. Quinlan says.

After ovulation, if you don’t get pregnant, your estrogen levels drop. Your discharge can get thicker and cloudier, and you may even have a few more “dry days.” If you notice a pinkish discharge right before your period, it’s nothing to panic about: It just means that your endometrial lining is starting to shed slowly and is a sign that your period is coming soon, Dr. Shepherd says. Then, you get your period, and the cycle begins anew.

Taking hormonal birth control may impact your natural discharge rhythm, especially if you’re using a method with estrogen, Dr. Shepherd says. Because estrogen in birth control suppresses ovulation, it’s unlikely you’ll see any major discharge changes during the month, she says. (Unless something’s wrong down there, which we’ll get to in a second.) However, if you’re taking a progesterone-only BC, like the minipill or a hormonal IUD, your discharge may still change because these methods don’t impact your ovulation as much.

There are various types of funky discharge changes that signal something is off with your vagina.

You know what’s normal for you, and any major, lasting shifts in your discharge should be flagged for your doctor, even if they don’t seem particularly worrisome. But there are certain kinds of discharge that should prompt a call to your ob/gyn ASAP, because they probably mean your vaginal health is compromised.

Yellow or green discharge: “That indicates that your body is trying to fight an infection,” Dr. Shepherd says. Possible culprits include sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhea, chlamdydia, and trichomoniasis, a lesser-known STI caused by a parasite. Bacterial vaginosis, which happens when “bad” bacteria in your vagina (anaerobes) outnumber “good” bacteria there (lactobacilli), may also be the cause.

These infections typically also cause a foul-smelling vaginal odor, another sign you should ask your doctor for evaluation.

An uptick in gray or white discharge: While yellow or green discharge is a sure sign something’s up, that doesn’t mean lighter discharge is always A-OK. All of the above infections can cause an uptick in gray or white discharge as well. This is why it’s important to tell your doctor if you’re seeing a lot more of the stuff, even if the color doesn’t immediately seem off.

Cottage cheese-like discharge: Having itchiness or burning with discharge that resembles cottage cheese can mean you have a yeast infection. But if you keep self-treating what seems like a yeast infection and it always comes back, see your doctor. You may have recurrent yeast infections (meaning you get four or more a year) that require longer treatment, or your “yeast infection” may be something else entirely, like chlamydia or gonorrhea.

Bloody discharge not related to your period: If you’re seeing pink, red, or brown discharge at any point in your cycle other than during your period or just before it, you should call your doctor, Dr. Quinlan says. You could just be spotting unexpectedly due to something like a change in your birth control or cervical polyps (non-cancerous growths on your cervix). However, in rare cases, bloody discharge can be a sign of cervical cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Bottom line: Discharge collecting in your underwear throughout the day is completely healthy, but if yours looks different in a way that worries you, talk to your doctor. “When there’s a change in your normal, go get it evaluated,” Dr. Shepherd says.

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