Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal condition that affects about one-third of women worldwide. BV can negatively impact a woman’s physical, emotional, sexual, and social well-being.

Symptoms of BV include watery, white or grey vaginal discharge, vaginal discomfort or itchiness and a strong fishy odour. Women with BV are at a higher risk of getting sexually transmitted infections and having reproductive health problems. However, there’s still much we don’t understand about why BV keeps coming back and why treatments sometimes fail.

Antibiotics are the main treatment, but options are limited and often not very effective. Up to 50 per cent of women experience BV again within a year after treatment. When BV returns, doctors may use stronger antibiotic treatments, sometimes including boric acid, which is usually used for recurring vaginal yeast infections. Although boric acid is being used in clinics, we don’t fully understand how it works. Previous studies have shown that boric acid is safe and effective against recurrent yeast infections by preventing biofilm formation and fungal growth. It’s believed that boric acid might also work for BV by disrupting the biofilm formation seen in resistant BV cases, but this hasn’t been tested yet.

This project aims to fill this knowledge gap by conducting experiments to see how boric acid affects bacterial growth, biofilm formation, and whether it reduces damage to vaginal cells. We hope to understand better how boric acid treats BV, which could inform doctors and lead to new and more effective treatments in the future.