This Is Your Vagina In Summer

How to take excellent care of your lady parts.

- Andrea Atkins

WOMEN’S BODIES ARE designed to weather every season beautifully. But the things we do while having fun in (and out of) the sun can bring a few challenges for our nether regions. Be mindful of these behaviors:

Waxing and shaving

Summer is peak hair removal time. Forty-six percent of women who regularly groom their bikini area do so before vacation, according to a 2016 study published in JAMA Dermatology. But a 2017 study in the same journal showed that 27 percent of those who groom run into some trouble, which could be in the form of cuts, chemical or heat burns, or rashes. To add insult to injury, “shaving and waxing can lead to infected hair follicles,” says Tami Rowen, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and gynecologic surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.