Vaginal Health

Amelia has launched Australia’s only vaginal pessary probiotic

Our probiotic pessary can be inserted into the vagina every day at night time for 5-10 days. There after it can be used once to twice a week to help maintain a healthy vaginal microbiome on an everyday basis.

It’s important to know that the vaginal microbiome is constantly in flux, making it difficult to maintain ‘vaginal health’ or at least consistency in prevalence of healthy bacteria. Targeted probiotic use with Amelia V-Spot probiotic can help increase the levels of healthy, beneficial bacteria in the vagina.

However, where daily maintenance of the vaginal microbiome is concerned, all vaginal probiotics are not equal in effectiveness.

There are two main things to look for:

1. The right recipe of strains
2. A vaginally inserted capsule (not gel, oil based pessary or cream)

1. The right recipe of strains for daily vaginal health

While Lactobacillus bacteria is generally considered healthy, not all Lactobacillus species can colonise in the vagina. It’s important that the “good” bugs stick around, populate and live happily in the vagina for daily maintenance of vaginal health.

The species that colonise almost every single healthy vagina across the globe are Lactobacillus crispatus and Lactobacillus gasseri. L. crispatus and L. gasseri have excellent adhesive abilities to the vaginal wall cells and create the most dominant healthy bacterial colonies.

In fact, L. crispatus is known by some scientists affectionately as the ‘superhero’ of the vagina and the most beneficial healthy bacteria in vaginal microbiome. L. crispatus is present in healthy vaginal microbiome of 65% of women while L. gasseri is present in more than 40% of women.

2. What do the experts say about vaginal health?

Professor Wilhelmina May Huston, a microbiologist at the University of Technology Sydney who leads a team investigating sexually transmitted infections and the reproductive tract microbiome said:

“The quantity of each species in the vagina varies in individuals and over time. There is no set ‘healthy’ amount of any of these organisms, and there are racial differences. Generally, Lactobacillus crispatus is the most abundant organism that is also associated with protective benefits in healthy women,” she said.

In addition to L. crispatus and L. gasseri, there are ‘fighter’ bugs producing substances that can disrupt biofilms created by bad bacteria. Biofilms are a protective layer that bacteria can generate to help protect themselves, which is one of the reasons why sometimes prescription therapy may not eliminate all bad bacteria. 

3. Why vaginal pessaries are more effective than oral capsules?

Vaginal route of administration, either through a pessary, gel or tablet, allows for targeted and direct delivery of probiotic strains into the vagina. Clinical data supports the benefit of vaginal administration of probiotics for daily vaginal health and healthy microbiome maintenance.

Being at the site of action, good bugs can directly replenish the vagina’s environment by colonising it and producing beneficial substances, like lactic acid, that would further protect and support healthy vaginal microbiome.

Oral probiotics often have similar strains to vaginal pessary probiotics, but they need to go through the gastric system to get to the vagina. As the gastric system is quite a harsh, acidic environment, many of the good bugs from the oral probiotic may die before they reach the site of action in the vagina. 

And while some studies have shown that oral probiotics do colonise in the vagina eventually, it can take longer than vaginal pessaries. Vaginal probiotics are usually administered less frequently and for shorter periods of time (5-10 days). Orally administered probiotics are usually applied over course of 30 to 60 days.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Vaginally Applied Probiotics vs. 

Oral Probiotics in Microbiome Restoration

Adapted from Wu et al., 2022. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2;8(1):34. 

When it comes to vaginal application of probiotics, the choice of dosage form is critically important to ensure a positive health outcome, survival of the healthy bacterial strains, shelf-life stability and safety for a patient.

Probiotics are incredibly sensitive organisms, needing the right environment both during the manufacturing process and during shelf-life (in the primary packaging), to give them the best chance of survival over the lifetime of the product.

The following are risk factors that may limit the survival of good bacteria:

• Moisture. Water is the number one enemy of probiotics which can mean that gels and creams claiming probiotic benefits deliver a diminished dose to the consumer.
• Heat. Heat can be generated during the manufacturing process when a tablet is compressed together, and this can cause the bugs to die.
• ‘Non-active’. In some homeopathic tablets the probiotic is described as a ‘non-active’ ingredient so it’s good to be aware of this and aim to purchase a probiotic with active strains.
• A bottle. A blister pack with aluminium foil on both sides is the superior protection for probiotics. Shelf-stable probiotics also do not require refrigeration which can lower the risk of destabilising the product with temperature variants caused by transportation and taking it in and out of the fridge.

Amelia’s V-Spot probiotic has all the components to ensure a top quality support for daily maintenance of vaginal health including: the right recipe of bacterial species and targeted delivery through the vagina.