Dr. Kate is an OB/GYN at one of the largest teaching hospitals in New York City who answers your medical questions here once a week. To ask her your own question, click here.
Hello Dr. Kate,
My question is about the taste of my vagina. Both from what my boyfriend has said/his reactions and my own taste-tests, I know that sometimes I taste of nothing and sometimes almost bitter (even after showering). Is this change due to hormones, or is it like with men where the foods you eat affect your taste? Thank you so much!
— (Would Rather Be) Tasteless
Dear Tasteless,
Every woman has a unique taste that changes based on many things. At different times in your cycle, your taste can change from sweet to salty to sour. When you’re aroused, or if you’re sweating (or both), the flavor can also be different. And certainly having an infection (yeast or vaginosis) can cause your taste to change.
It’s unclear if diet can really change the taste of vaginal secretions — unsurprisingly, it’s hard to get funding to do such research. But anecdotally, different foods in your diet can change how you taste. The foods I hear about most: raw garlic, citrus fruits (particularly pineapple), strawberries, coffee, and asparagus. Even alcohol, nicotine and vitamins have the potential to change your taste. Violet Blue goes into further details that she learned while researching her book on cunnilingus.
I’d love to hear about this from you all… Have any of you (or your partners) noticed a change in your vaginal taste? What do you think it’s due to?
— Dr. Kate
So I’ve read about ”Why Does My Vagina Taste Bitter Sometimes”. Now I do smoke & Drink … if I stop drinking & smoking how long will it take for that ”bitter taste” to go away? Or if there is anything I can do for that ”Bitter” taste to go away…
i noticed a few months ago when my partner asked me to taste myself it tasted really sour/bitter but most of the time it tastes sweet i was thinking about what i had been eating because i heard it changes the taste alot and it wasnt what i was eating but what i was drinking. beer. we were drinking just about every other day for a few weeks and so i stopped drinking for a few nights. tasted it and it was back to normal if not sweeter.
The first time I went down a girl, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! The taste was divine- sort of tangy and musty, but only slightly salty. Vaginal honey, I called it! If it was possible to bottle her juices, I would have done!
Scottboy, it sounds to me like your girlfriend had used deoderant down there recently. A lot of women do this but some use a spray rather than a stick so instead of just getting the very inside of the legs, they end up spraying all over…deoderant/anti perspirant will dry up your saliva very quickly, it’s meant to absorb wetness.
In Response to Scottyboy1269:
I have noticed that ovulation changes the way women (including myself) taste and feel. the pH level of the vag in question is really the most drastic factor. I don’t really cater my diet too much. I’m a mother of two. My family likes to eat a healthy variety and it seems silly to choose the veggies I feed my family based on my sex life! Instead i eat lots of extra yogurt and fruits on my own. This works well, trust me. My husband is not shy about telling me what works or not!
If your girlfriend’s vag is drying up your saliva, she may have too much yeast inside of her. The vag is a delicate place and liitle things like too much heat, non-cotton panties, or not enough yogurt in the diet can throw off the yeast balance.
I hope this helps!
Given that the taste of men’s “stuff” can be altered by diet (vegetarians taste better, but not as good as a soy latte, apparently…) I did some quick internet trolling, and came up with this from Salon, regarding bitter tasting va-jay-jays:
“A popular tidbit of advice was the elimination diet. As Deb Levine, sex advice columnist on Thrive.com and author of “The Joy of Cybersex,” says, “You should experiment with your diet and with your lover by using an elimination diet or a rotation diet. Eliminate dairy products, cruciferous vegetables — cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus — which are also gas producing vegetables, and garlic and onions. The biggest rumor is that eating parsley before oral sex makes the pussy sweeter.”
The experts agree, for the best tasting pussy, vegetarians come out ahead. John from SFSI told me that “a vegetarian diet with no saturated fats is the winner. Meats, alcohol, tobacco and drug use all make a pussy taste bitter or acidic. Pineapple and fruits make it sweeter and give it a fresher, zesty flavor. Chocolate and fats make it less fresh.” So while chocolate may help your PMS, it’s not helping the taste of your juices. But at least it’s a good substitute for love.”
You can read the whole article here:
http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/09/18/taste_woman/index1.html
Given that these are pretty siginificant dietary changes to suggest (and you know how sensitive we chicks are about our bodies!) if I may be so bold, I’d say you might want to preface any discussion with, “I’ve heard we will BOTH taste better if we try these things…” then it’s less like a criticism of her, and more like something you can do for each other, IMHO 🙂
I’m curious and a little frustrated… I love performing cunnilingus but am now (incredibly happily) married to woman who’s vagina is so bitter, even after showering that the idea is just a complete turn off. I’m hoping there may be a solution that could subtly brought about as I don’t wish to make her too self-conscious…. Thanks to anyone who can help.
I WAS JUST WONDERING, NORMALLY MY FIANCEE TASTES AND FEELS GREAT BUT THE OTHER NIGHT SHE KINDA TASTED FUNNY AND HAD A KIND OF POWDERY TEXTURE TO HER AND IT ACTUALLY DRIED UP THE SALIVA IN MY MOUTH? I THINK SHE MAY HAVE BEEN OVULATING, QUESTION IS DO WOMAN TASTE DIFFERENTLY DURING OVULATION?
In my experience they all taste about the same or have no flavor at all.
Thank you M L ! I’ll let you know what kind of results I get 🙂
Best Wishes.
happywife
Good luck, happywife. I hope things go well for you. 🙂
Artemis, I think the consensus is, it doesn’t matter for most mature men HOW or IF your vagina “sometimes” tastes bitter. Guys don’t worry about how their semen tastes, and we know “being married” doesn’t cause a change in vaginal secretions, and that putting sugary things into your vagina IS a bad thing to do.
I think the thing can be summed up by saying, “Keep clean, and after that don’t worry about “taste” if you are in a relationship with a mature man. He doesn’t worry about HIS taste, or yours and mature women don’t care a whit about either.”
Discussions evolve. Don’t quite see how that’s a “headache.” Sorry.
well this has been more of a headache to read than helpful
you went from sticking to the topic to arguing about how yeast infections starts to marriage consoling.
Can I please get help on the question at hand?
Thank you very much M L.
I know alot of what you said is very true, but you have given me courage to try talking with him and/or using counseling. For this, I am thankful!
HappyWife
Hi, happywife. Yes, I think counseling is a good idea. Often, physical effection, outside of sex waxes and wanes, but shouldn’t disappear completely.
I didn’t mean to disrespect you man, but it seems he is taking you for granted.
It IS hard to ask for what you want, but if you never do it, you continually end up frustrated, disappointed, and anger follows soon after. Before you know it, you’ll be avoiding sex altogether. (This seems to be the common route of marriages where people are ashamed or embarrassed to talk to each other about “the relationship” or sex.)
Can you talk to him while you aren’t making love at the moment and say, “I feel like plain intercourse isn’t satisfying me. Most women only achieve orgasm and physical satisfaction through longer stimulation of the clitoris and vagina etc, as well as holding, petting and physical attention before sex. I am starting to feel frustrated and I don’t want that or the lack of my satisfaction to interfere with our love or our sex life. We need to talk about a plan.”
Put that, of course, in your own words. BUT you must be specific! Don’t use baby words for your sex organs or “hint” (men don’t get hints, they need to be “let to water” most of the time, and usually have their damn heads forced IN.) The first time it will be HARD to do, but you will get better at it.
As this is permeating more than just the bedroom (he seems to be ignoring your need for non-sexual physical attention as well) talking to him about counseling is a good idea. If he is resistant, GO ALONE. One of you going is better than neither of you going.
I can pretty much guarantee that even if one of you gets counseling, it will help. (But both of you is better. Some men are resistant, so if he says, “I don’t need counseling, There;s nothing WRONG with ME!” go ALONE.)
Counseling is one of the best ways to learn how to communicate efficiently (most of our parents NEVER taught us that) and to not only get your needs met, but make sure he gets what he needs as well. As you have probably read a million times, the thing that plagues most marriages is the lack of communication. In Love or Not, things just don’t last, and don’t continue to feel healthy if you can’t talk to each other about the things that are so important. Sex is one of those things.
I don’t know any counselors in your area, but you can contact you health insurance online list, or call your local hospital or even ask your GYN or Internist if he or she knows a good marriage or couples counselor.
There is NOTHING to be ashamed of. We all have needs, and we can’t expect our lovers to be psychic. Talk is good.
Good luck, happy, I’ll be thinking of you.
Blessings.
M L