Passing air through the vagina

The possible causes for passing gas through vagina in females are:
-Infection of the vagina by gas forming organisms like clostridium etc.
- Minute rectovaginal fistula leading to passage of flatus through vagina. Pin head size fistula allows only air and there may not be any fecal matter passage.
Fistula can develop due to surgeries, difficulty deliveries, malignancies etc.
- Sometimes passage of flatus can be interpreted as gas from vagina. Like in situations of,
Gastritis, indigestion
Relaxed perineum
Improper closure of anal ring due to sentinel pile etc
can lead to passage of flatus.
In case of shorter perineum by birth or due to previous scars, this flatus can be interpreted as coming from vagina.

To diagnose the cause, local examination with speculum and bi manual examination is needed.
By examination the possibility of fistula, decreased muscle tone of the perineum can be ruled out. Vaginal swab culture and sensitivity may be needed to find out the possibility of vaginal infection and causative organism.
Kegel's perineal exercises help in tightening the perineum and can treat the problem due to relaxed perineum.

In Kegel's perineal exercises, perineal muscles to be tightened in the manner of holding urine or feces, daily for 10 to 20 times.

In severe cases surgical procedure may be needed to tighten the perineum.


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