Well at yeast everything ended well! <snicker> heheheheh
<crickets chirping>
sorry 
This whole thing smells fishy to me.
A ** serious ** response to the OP:
If a woman smells fishy it is very likely she has bacterial vaginosis…it can be cause by many things but is basically an overgrowth of the bacteria present naturally in the vagina. A doctor can get a sample of the discharge and perform what is called a KOH, test whereby a chemical is combined with the discharge and if a ‘fishy’ odor eminates, it is usually bv, Furthermore, the dr. will look at the sample under the microscope and determine if there are ‘clue’ cells which are usually indicative of an infection.
It is usually a simple thing to treat in that the dr. will prescribe metro-gel to be applied internally or Flagyll, to be taken orally, both are Metronidazole. However, while you are on that medication, alcohol is completely out of the question…at least if you are on the oral dose…the issue with alcohol and the gel is much less of a problem.
BV is rarely a cleanliness issue and can actualy be a problem because you are too clean…soap and feminine deodorants can actually cause it. Also douching exacerbates the problem.
Occassionaly the ‘fishy’ odor can also me caused by trich…(can’t remember how to pell it). It’s basically a paramecium living in the vagina. It can cause greenish/frothy fishy smelling discharge…there are some arguments as to whether it can be sexually transmitted. It, too, is treated with Metronidazole.
C’mon guys…lets not laugh too much…let’s answer these types of questions…it’s what the StraightDope has always been about…an end to ignorance.
And an end to my sex life!
Thank you very much, BottledBlondJeanie.
Peace,
mangeorge
Good response, but it still doesn’t answer the OP. Why does it have an odor similiar to fish and not something else?
Because they happen to smell similar, DUH!
Body fluids, like sweat and urine, have proteins, which are eaten by bacteria. It’s that process that causes the odor. If two odors are similiar, then the proteins and bacteria must be similiar in amount or kind.
Well, so much for tuna for lunch. Or anything for that matter…
Another Barfing Smiley moment…
Old Boston joke: Guy walks up to a policeman and asks “Do you know where I can get scrod.”
Policeman says “I’ve been asked that a million times, but never in the present pluperfect.”
What the blind man said when he passed the fish market…
Good Morning Ladies!
“What do tuna vaginas smell like?”
Call a local aquarium, most have an excellent information desk. Ours is staffed with people in their 70s usually. they might know.
Why do feet sometimes smell like stinky cheese?
Oh, that’s right. Go ahead and hijack the thread into a smelly body parts discussion!
This might be an ignorant question, but I was once told that older women do smell bad down there when they’re going through menopause. Does anyone know if that’s true?
I have been out with one older woman and she smelled fine down there. Having said that she was very clean and washed regularly.
It’s already been said, but I think that if your woman has bad smells under the bridge then maybe she either needs to bathe more or buy a tube of cream. Most women in my experience don’t smell of tuna, but then again maybe I’ve been lucky.
A related point: I’ve heard chefs say that really fresh fish doesn’t have a “fishy” smell - it doesn’t really smell of anything. A salient point, I think?
As a long time Sushi eater, I’ll agree that fresh fish, including Tuna, has virtually no smell. Canned Tuna however…
A serious response to the OP:
If a woman smells fishy it is very likely she has bacterial vaginosis…it can be cause by many things but is basically an overgrowth of the bacteria present naturally in the vagina. A doctor can get a sample of the discharge and perform what is called a KOH, test whereby a chemical is combined with the discharge and if a ‘fishy’ odor eminates, it is usually bv, Furthermore, the dr. will look at the sample under the microscope and determine if there are ‘clue’ cells which are usually indicative of an infection.
It is usually a simple thing to treat in that the dr. will prescribe metro-gel to be applied internally or Flagyll, to be taken orally, both are Metronidazole. However, while you are on that medication, alcohol is completely out of the question…at least if you are on the oral dose…the issue with alcohol and the gel is much less of a problem.
BV is rarely a cleanliness issue and can actualy be a problem because you are too clean…soap and feminine deodorants can actually cause it. Also douching exacerbates the problem.
Occassionaly the ‘fishy’ odor can also me caused by trich…(can’t remember how to pell it). It’s basically a paramecium living in the vagina. It can cause greenish/frothy fishy smelling discharge…there are some arguments as to whether it can be sexually transmitted. It, too, is treated with Metronidazole.
C’mon guys…lets not laugh too much…let’s answer these types of questions…it’s what the StraightDope has always been about…an end to ignorance.
Oops! Ignore last post which is quote from BottledBlondJeanie submitted in error.
The smells associated with both vaginas and dead fish are the smells of organics acids produced by the the action of local bacteria metabolizing whatever energy source is available to them.
It happens that the flora of vaginas and dead fish often produce the same organic acids, just like the flora in a pooly aerated garden compost pile often produce organic acids that smell like the acids produced in the human large intestine.
If you really want to know more about vaginal odors, you can read The odors of the human vagina by Keith L, Stromberg P, Krotoszynski BK, Shah J, Dravnieks A. (Arch Gynakol 1975 Dec 16;220(1):1-10). They did gas-chromatography analysis of 90 samples of vaginal secretions from 10 women and found that “at any given sample time the perceptible vaginal odor of each individual women was composed of numerous separate odorous effluents. Almost 2,1000 odoriferous effluents were observed.” “The odorous effluents were assigned 34 characteristic odors in three hedonic categories (neutral, pleasant and unpleasant).”
A comment on and a correction of BottledBlondJeanie post:
Not all women who smell fishy have bacterial vaginosis. A tipoff for bacerial vaginosis is a really bad (worse than fishy) smell that is strongest immediately after the male ejaculates. (IMHO, when this happens, its time for metronidazole regardless of what the doc sees under the microscope or whether or not she smells anything funny after putting KOH on a specimen.)
There are no arguments as to whether trich (infection with Trichomonas vaginalis) can be sexually transmitted; it is sexually transmitted. (Bacterial vaginosis, on the other hand, is not sexually transmitted.)
Makes me wonder where all that crap in a can they call tuna comes from now…:eek: