Why you should stop wearing thongs right now
Warning: this will shock you


Warning: this will shock you
Don’t you just hate it when things you took for granted are actually bad for you? Like wearing Breton tops and using bath bombs?
Well if you wear thongs, we have some bad news for you: it turns out they’re not very good for your vagina, at all.
Because wearing them means you could transfer E. Coli bacteria from your bum hole to your vagina.
Octavia Cannon, a board-certified gyneacologist, told Seventeen, ‘Think about where the string slides when you sit down in a thong.’
Which is obvious when you think about it, but put that way, it makes you think twice about your underwear choice.
And while we’re on the subject of bacteria, you should always wear a fresh pair of underwear after a workout. Because a shower will do you no good if you’re putting on sweaty knickers afterwards.
Octavia explains, ‘Yeast and bacteria love a warm, moist, dark environment.’
She also advises against buying too-small underwear (it can cause rashes and infection) and says you should always go for cotton (it’s the most breathable fabric).
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Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.
Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).
Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.
However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.
Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.
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