12-03-2025
- Health
- National Geographic
Researchers find that bacterial vaginosis is really an STI
For decades, bacterial vaginosis (BV) has been treated as a frustrating but routine infection—one that afflicts nearly a third of women in the U.S. and often comes back again and again for more than half of patients. But what if the reason for these relentless recurrences isn't just a quirk of the vaginal microbiome?
A groundbreaking new study suggests BV isn't just an imbalance—it's sexually transmitted. And the key to stopping it may not lie in treating women alone but in treating their male partners as well.
'One dominant risk factor… in our clinical studies was a regular partner,' says Catriona Bradshaw, an author of the study and a clinician at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre at Monash University. '[It] kept popping out and just smacking us between the eyes, and we got to a point where we thought 'we just have to do a partner treatment trial.''
Is bacterial vaginosis sexually transmitted?
BV occurs when the perfect storm of bacteria combines in the vagina. Unlike typical sexually transmitted infections (STIs), no single pathogen is responsible. But, it has long been suspected that these bacteria can be sexually transmitted.
'We've had evidence for many years that bacterial vaginosis might be a sexually transmitted infection, based on data that includes increased risk of bacterial vaginosis with increasing number of sexual partners, increased risk with sex without a condom, and other evidence,' says David Fredricks, a clinician and microbiologist at the University of Washington. 'Although this hypothesis has been out there for many decades, some limited studies of male partner treatment to eradicate BV associated bacteria have not met with success.'
