Before You Throw Away Your Feminine Hygiene Wipes, Read This

There's been a lot of ruckus lately about the safety of feminine hygiene wipes, but before you go chuck your Summer's Eve in the trash, let's talk to a doctor about freshening up the downtown, if you know what we mean.

As it turns out, these wipes are not all that bad inherently, and there's no real reason to panic. "Some women can wipe their bottoms with sandpaper and be fine," said New York gynecologist Dr. Alyssa Dweck, MD, author of The Complete A to Z For Your V. "Other women are sensitive and will have a reaction to one or multiple ingredients." Those women who are sensitive are the only women who would be at any kind of risk from using the wipes.

"I don't want to give these wipes a bad name," Dr. Dweck said. "They're not dangerous, but they're also not necessary." What that means is, you should reconsider how you're using them and why. Dr. Dweck told POPSUGAR that these wipes can be a great staple for a gym bag if you're not going to have the chance to shower until later that day (this was a "very reasonable use," she said), but "the vagina has amazing self-cleaning properties" and can really take care of things itself.

She did mention something important, however: "If you feel like you have such a bad odor that you need to use some sort of deodorizing or fragrant wipe, then you better get yourself checked for an infection."

In summary, "there's nothing wrong with them unless you're sensitive to an ingredient" in the wipes, but they "should not be used to mask some sort of a smell that might be a sign of something worse going on."