Why are some vulvas dark

So, sign in RN to get your daily dose of wellness. Feminine Hygiene. Your vagina is naturally meant to be darker than the rest of your body. Sonakshi Kohli 82 Likes. Sonakshi Kohli Twenty kilos down and struggling to maintain the weight loss by preaching healthy eating, while eating unhealthy every now and then. Login Sign Up. Your skin has certain cells, called melanocytes, which form melanin.

In your genital area, those melanocytes are particularly sensitive to hormones. It can also darken the skin on or around your nipples, areolae , and anus, too. If anything, it stays the same or darkens more. An increase in friction can lead to an increased potential for melanocyte hyperactivity, says Goldstein. Both vaginal and anal sex can cause this kind of friction. The labia and upper thigh area, particularly in the skin folds in your groin area, can also darken because of daily rubbing or the trauma of childbirth.

Shaving and hair removal products can also lead to darkening of the skin for the same reason. Friction can also lead to inflammation in the skin, which can in turn cause post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Yeast infections , ingrown hairs , and folliculitis can cause post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, too.

This is because your skin has experienced more years of repeated trauma or has gone through more hormonal changes. Hormonal changes during pregnancy can darken your nipples, areolae, and moles. It can also cause a dark line or linea nigra down the center of your lower abdomen below your belly button. Yes, your hormones can play a vital part in this.

It happens as a result of the hormonal changes that take place. As per the view of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, during puberty, there might be a sudden rise in the oestrogen levels might lead to the darkening of the intimate area. In your late 30s and 40s, there might be the same effect owing to the low oestrogen levels as you near towards menopause. The vagina is the most sensitive part of the body, and women are prone to vaginal infections from time to time.

Certain conditions affect the area around the vulva, which might lead to dark patches around the area. Not only the vagina, but other body parts can also darken with age.

It might not be the case always, but this factor should not be ignored. As a rule, the color of your labia is initially determined by your skin tone, though its exact shade will change with time. When someone's labia change color, hormones usually have something to do with it, explains Susan Loeb-Zeitlin, M.

The first time that you noticed a difference was likely during puberty , when the labia develop, grow larger, and, in turn, may get darker. Tara Shirazian, M. Other than that, she says that slight shifts in labia color are pretty common — and, unless you have additional symptoms , they're rarely a cause for concern. Shirazian says.