Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

Yachtold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult. For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Thelman.

Research suggests that anywhere from roughly a quarter to more than a third of people

with a vagina

will contract bacterial vaginosis or BV at least once in their lifetimes.

It involves an imbalance in the microbes that grow in the vagina, with pathogenic strains beating out healthier bacteria.

It's not usually a serious condition, but it can put people at higher risk for contracting

HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Now, some researchers are arguing that BV itself should be treated like an STI.

Those researchers are my guest today.

Linka Vostratil is a senior research fellow at Monash University's Melbourne Sexual Health Center.

Katrina Bradshaw is a professor of sexual health medicine at Monash University and Alfred Hospital.

Before we dive into our conversation, it's important to note that while we'll be discussing treating BV as an STI,

people can be diagnosed with BV even if they've never had sex. It's an imbalance of vaginal bacteria and one we don't really understand very well at that,

so there are probably multiple ways it can come about.

The point of this new research wasn't to figure out how people acquire BV,

but rather to understand whether transmission between partners can make treatment more difficult.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about Linkin Kat's new study.

Thank you both so much for coming on to chat today. I'm really looking forward to it.

...