How much discharge is too much

That's what prompted Dr. According to studies and textbooks, women generally produce anywhere from 1 to 4 ml of vaginal discharge in 24 hours.

The amount tends to vary on a day-to-day basis, often affected by factors like ovulation and birth control. But how much is 4 ml anyway? She then empties the liquid onto a panty liner, and it nearly fills the entire surface, showing that a healthy amount of daily discharge is probably way more than you thought. Almost all people experience an increase in vaginal discharge with pregnancy. It helps to protect the fetus from infections that might travel up the vagina and into the uterus.

Your discharge may also be thin and clear or white in color. Other early pregnancy symptoms include:. Lochia is a type of vaginal discharge you may experience in the weeks after delivering a baby.

When you breastfeed, this discharge may increase in volume. It typically begins as dark red bleeding and then changes to a watery pink or brown before tapering off in a creamy yellow color. Lochia generally stops four to six weeks after you have your baby. However, women in later stages of breastfeeding anecdotally report increased discharge of varying texture.

Yeast infections affect up to 75 percent of women at one time or another. You may develop an infection as a result of:. Bacterial vaginosis is caused by an overgrowth of bacteria in the vagina. Other symptoms include itching in the vagina or burning during urination. Certain activities, like douching or having unprotected sex, may increase your risk of developing this type of infection.

STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia may have no symptoms at first. As the infection progresses, though, you might experience foul-smelling or thick vaginal discharge or even bleeding between periods.

If left untreated, STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia can lead to a more serious infection of the reproductive organs called pelvic inflammatory disease PID and even infertility. Generally speaking, the average person produces about a teaspoon of white or clear discharge a day.

Texture may range from thin to thick and slippery to creamy. Color may range from clear to white or off-white. Smell should be relatively odorless. You may have more or less discharge depending on where you are in your cycle. Once the egg is released, discharge amount lessens and becomes thicker and whiter.

You may be able to minimize its impact if you:. It often fluctuates depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle. Your discharge can say a lot about your health. Here's our swatch-guide to vaginal…. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Vaginal secretions which may contain cervical mucus or cervical fluid, because it is secreted by the cervical glands changes in amount, consistency, and even smell throughout the phases of the menstrual cycle. Some women check their cervical mucus to help predict ovulation so that they can time sex to increase or decrease the odds of conception.

Even if you're not trying to conceive or prevent pregnancy, it can be useful to know how much vaginal mucus to expect and when, as well as what's normal for you. Becoming familiar with your cycle and changes in vaginal secretions and cervical mucus can help you monitor your overall reproductive health.

After menstruation, cervical mucus goes through several stages, each lasting one to three days. Typically, it is dry for the first few days after your period, then becomes slightly sticky, and then creamy, like lotion. Next, you may notice the mucus becoming more wet and watery, before developing a raw egg-white consistency.

Typically, this is the point of your cycle where you have the most vaginal discharge. It's normal to have one to five days of this egg white vaginal mucus just before ovulation, or approximately the midpoint of an average, healthy cycle. Normally, a peak in luteinizing hormone LH and estrogen leads to an increase and change in cervical mucus, and this peak comes just before ovulation.

How much of an increase you might see in cervical mucus is different for everyone. Following this one- to five-day period of increased cervical fluid, there is another dip in fluids where the mucus becomes dry and sticky again before menstruation.

However, some women experience another instance of egg-white vaginal mucus just before menstruation begins. Every body is different, but in some cases, there are reasons for differences in cervical fluids.