When it comes to our bodies, comfort and confidence are naturally our top priorities. While there are endless elements that contribute to their achievement, much of our success is hinged on a single important factor: real wellbeing, that slippery and mythical notion which somehow seems to grow broader and less tangible year by year.
As women, the ability to seek wisdom from each other, to shield and advise, is perhaps our greatest gift. It’s within our highest nature to create circles of support through which we can address our native concerns, triumphs, fears, ideals, and most importantly, find and share solutions.
It’s in this realm that we can create discussions, destigmatise and validate one another, get insight, and focus on what we, as women, really want. So, let’s talk.
Vaginas—if you’ve got one, then this conversation is for you. As beautiful and integral to the function of the world as they are, they’re simply not given the pedestal and attention that they deserve. Thrush, UTIs, periods and dryness—these incredibly normal parts of a vagina’s life, of our lives—are repeatedly overlooked.
Whether it be a case of shyness or embarrassment, lack of awareness, or maybe just that talking about it contradicts the media’s constant validation of vaginas
as purely sexual objects, women’s intimate health is a topic that remains secretive, stigmatised and under-researched.
More than half of women will experience at least one UTI in their lifetime, with an estimated 25% experiencing a second within 12 months.
The problem is that while these painful experiences are ubiquitous, the solutions are not. Most commonly, and perhaps without a further thought from your GP, once diagnosed with a UTI you’ll receive a script for broad-spectrum, biome-obliterating antibiotics and be sent on your way. You’re left with a stop gap that frustratingly returns you to phase one, time and time again. Perhaps because our vaginas are known for their resilience in the many roles they play—sex, fertility,
childbirth, cleansing—it’s easy (especially for someone who doesn’t own one) to expect that they can cope with anything. A potentially flattering, yet all too convenient dismissal of a subject that deserves exceptional TLC as
the baseline.
That’s why at Gentil we create solutions that are simple, effective and easy to implement. We believe that women are at their most empowered when they feel supported and seen. From this foundation we’re committed to revolutionising the options for women’s intimate health, making them both affordable and transparent. Gentil is a female-founded, Australian-made, holistic health brand determined to create effective and natural intimate wellness solutions for all women to live their very best lives.
Our first offering is TAKE CARE OF U, a twice-daily oral supplement designed to support and enhance your urinary tract health. Working to not only treat but
prevent the symptoms of UTIs, TAKE CARE OF U is naturally derived and designed to be easily streamlined into your daily routine.
Alongside TAKE CARE OF U’s internal approach to intimate health, we have also created two topical products devoted to maintaining excellent pH balance as the baseline for the skin’s wellbeing. Our silky water-based personal lubricant A QUIET NIGHT IN and creamy intimate wash COME CLEAN are each formulated on the understanding that our skin’s alkalinity holds the key to upholding an excellent microbiome and immune system.
At Gentil we’re committed to enabling discussions among women about intimate health, because we firmly believe that education is the key to understanding and
the path to dissolving stigma, and creating empathy and real change.
Let’s get the conversation started! Let’s increase awareness, demystify and normalise the problem, and celebrate the solution. Prevention is always better than cure, but why can’t we have both?
Words by Rachel Rutt
Photographs by Victoria Zschommler
Styled by Natalie Turnbull