Inserting one’s finger or soap into the vagina causes infections which can overtime kill sexual pleasure, a gynaecologist at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Imran Morhason-Bello, has said.

In order to reduce infections and preserve the natural anatomy of the vagina, Mr Morhason-Bello advised women to stop using soap or perfume to clean private parts.

Mr Morhason-Bello gave this advice on Wednesday as part of a lecture at an advocacy meeting on the need to curb ‘medicalisation’ of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria.

The meeting which held in Abuja was organised by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) and University of Ibadan Center for Population and Reproductive Health.

Mr Marhason-Bello said FGM is not the only bad practice that causes havoc to women’s private part and their sexual lives but also actions of women in the bid of clean up their private parts.

He said this causes consistent infections, thereby affecting their sex drive and ability to experience pleasure while having sex.

He said FGM is not only related to cutting, it also involves using any material that could destroy the structural anatomy of the female external genitals.

Mr Morhason-Bello while speaking with journalists explained that women need to avoid inserting non-prescribed medication, perfumes, and deodorants in their vagina as this can lead to infection.

“The reason is that there are some products that women are using for cleaning up, some of them have corrosive materials that will elicit corrosion at the clitoris and labia side which is very thin and heavily vascularised.

”When you disrupt it, then this area will heal by secondary intention and when it heals by secondary intention there is scaring in the nerve invasion that makes them to be sensitive and therefore their sexual drive will be lost,” he said.

Mr Morhason-Bello also condemned inserting of fingers into the vagina as a form of cleaning up.

He advised that women wash the vagina with water and ”not mind the odour from the private parts because the odour is characteristic of the vagina”.

“The surest material for a lady to use to clean up is clean water because when you use anything that has antiseptic materials, it would destroy the normal organisms that nature or God has created for that place,” he said

He also advised that when shaving the pubic hair, women should be careful so as not to bruise the region.

“Sometimes when you observe the vulva of some women because of multiple scars from shaving with blade, the area is disrupted and it can affect their sexual sensation later in life,” he added.