What should you know about dry vaginal skin?

People often use vaginal to describe the external vulval skin. Dryness there may feel tight, itchy, burning, or sore and can produce flaking or small splits. Irritation from soaps, wipes, pads, laundry products, shaving, or friction is common. Asteatotic eczema, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis can also affect genital skin.

Internal dryness may instead cause discomfort with penetration or a change in natural lubrication. Discharge, odour, sores, blisters, or pain with urination can point to a problem needing a clinician’s assessment rather than moisturiser alone.

Wash the external area with lukewarm water or a bland, fragrance-free cleanser, then pat dry. Avoid douching, perfumed products, deodorant sprays, and scrubbing. Wear breathable underwear and change out of damp clothing. A suitable emollient may protect external skin, but do not put ordinary body creams inside the vagina.

Pause products that sting and avoid scratching. A clinician can recommend treatment when eczema, psoriasis, infection, hormonal change, or another cause is suspected.

Arrange a medical review if symptoms last, recur, interfere with intimacy, or do not settle after removing irritants. Seek prompt care for bleeding unrelated to a period, open sores, blisters, marked swelling, fever, new discharge or odour, severe pain, or difficulty passing urine.

Is the dryness external, internal, or both? Could this be eczema, psoriasis, infection, or irritation from a product? Which emollient is safe externally, and what symptoms should prompt an earlier review?