A new study provides strong evidence that bacterial vaginosis, a common vaginal condition, is spread during sex. But experts are still debating about whether to officially call it an STI.

Fact checked by Nick Blackmer Bacterial vaginosis (BV) has been considered a bacterial imbalance in the vagina, rather than a sexually transmitted infection (STI). New research is challenging this assumption.

Women experience fewer repeat infections with bacterial vaginosis when both they and their male sex partners receive antibiotics.

Bacterial vaginosis affects one in three women and often comes back after treatment, but it can be completely wiped out in most cases if their male partner is treated too.

We’ve suspected for a long time that it’s a sexually transmitted infection (STI), because it has a similar incubation period (after sex) to most STIs and is associated with