You know me: I try to do what I can to hit every woman-related topic known to man (If I can), and boy, if there is something that needs to be addressed on this platform, right here and right now, it’s sexual experiences that, somehow, end up having yeast infections attached to them after the fact.
Gee, can there be a bigger roller coaster ride than feeling the pure elation that sex provides, only to go through climbing-the-walls itching, burning, and vaginal discharge due to a yeast infection a few days after it?
If this has been your personal testimony, and it’s been more than 1-2 times, my goal is to provide you with some science and then some tips that can prevent this from being a future issue.
Because the last thing that I want you to feel is like you can’t totally enjoy sex, simply because you’re nervous that an annoying ass yeast infection is awaiting you on the other side of having it.
A Yeast Infection. Revisited.
GiphySo, it’s not like yeast infections don’t get their fair share of attention over on this side of the internet. You can read articles that I’ve written like “Yeast Infections Happen Most Before Your Period. Here's Why.,” “Do You Get More Yeast Infections In The Spring? There's A Reason For That.,” “What To Do For Yeast Infections (On Other Parts Of Your Body)” to prove that point. Still, just for the sake of making sure that you are able to connect the dots between a yeast infection and how sex can potentially increase the chances of you experiencing one, let’s briefly recap what a yeast infection is.
Candida is a type of fungus that naturally develops within your body. Typically, it is harmless yet when you experience an overgrowth of it within your system, that can lead to a yeast infection — not just in your vagina; however, that is what we are going to focus on today. And when this type of infection occurs, it can lead to symptoms like incessant itching, burning, swelling of your vagina and vulva (the outer part of your vagina), a thick discharge and discomfort during sex.
Although things like antibiotics, a weakened immune system and fluctuating hormones can be what creates the “perfect storm environment” for a yeast infection, it’s important to also keep in mind that, any time your system is imbalanced, that can help to cultivate a yeast infection too.
Let’s now build on this fact.
Now Here’s How Sex Can Cultivate the Environment for a Yeast Infection
GiphySo, here’s the deal about yeast infections and why some people tend to get them after having sex. Although sex itself doesn’t actually cause a yeast infection to transpire, the bacteria that comes along with copulation can find itself being the culprit. This can include the bacteria that is exchanged during vaginal intercourse, anal sex and even oral sex.
For instance — and this might be TMI for some but if you’ve read my content enough, you know that I am perfectly fine with that — I remember many years ago, after not having sex for a while and getting a new partner, after he went down on me, about a week later, I had one of the nastiest yeast infections that I’ve ever had in my entire life (I have a fungal sensitivity, so I have to stay on top of that). My nurse practitioner told me that his saliva (along with the alcohol content that was in it because alcohol contains sugar) probably threw my pH balance off and that is what led to the infection (the more you know, the more you freakin’ know!). So, there’s real life proof that oral sex can help to give you a yeast infection, if you are not careful).
OK, but if things are going perfectly fine in the vaginal health department until you have sex and I’m saying that science says that coitus itself is not the cause. If that is indeed true, what the heck is going on?
Good question.
What Makes You More Susceptible to a Sex-Related Yeast Infection
GiphySo, here’s the deal. Even though sex doesn’t give you a yeast infection per se, there are things that can “work together” with the act to make you more vulnerable to this type of health issue.
- If you engage in unprotected sex, the sperm/semen (or again, saliva if it’s oral sex) from your partner could temporarily throw your pH levels off which could lead to a yeast infection.
- Although you should always participate in protected sex (especially if you’re not in an a monogamous or exclusive long-term relationship), the double-edged sword here is if you are allergic to latex, if the spermicide is too strong and/or you use lube that contains glycerin (which has sugar in it which yeast naturally thrives off of) — these things could also cause a yeast infection.
- If you have a “bang, bang, bang” partner (which isn’t always or necessarily a bad thing — LOL), the friction from the intercourse could lead to inflammation in your vagina which could throw off its balance of yeast which could also trigger a yeast infection.
- Not properly cleaning those sex toys before moving them from body part to body part? That could cause bacteria to move around which could absolutely lead to a yeast infection.
- If your partner already has a yeast infection, that could give you a yeast infection.
And that last one? If your partner (or you) has a yeast infection and it’s not properly treated, that could result in you exchanging the yeast infection back and forth — and an untreated yeast infection can result in prolonged fatigue, gastrointestinal issues and bleeding and sores in your vaginal area (usually from incessant scratching).
What You Should Do If You (or Your Partner) Has a Yeast Infection
GiphyAlthough yeast infections are far more prevalent in women than they are in men, that doesn’t mean that men can’t get them. In fact, research reveals that somewhere around 1 in 25 men will end up with one at some point in their lifetime (as opposed to 75 percent of women will have at least one at some point in their lives); especially if they happen to be uncircumcised due to the yeast that could potentially get trapped inside of their foreskin (because yeast thrives in dark, warm and wet areas).
And although some men can experience similar symptoms of a yeast infection that women do, it should also go on record that men can have a yeast infection and not even know it; the word for this is asymptomatic. That’s why, if you do have sex with someone and you end up with a yeast infection, it’s important to discuss it with them, so that they can get tested — just to be sure that either they don’t have it or, if they do, you both can get treated, so that you’re not passing the infection back and forth to each other.
That said, if this is the first time having a yeast infection for either one of you, it’s best to go to a doctor to get a thorough diagnosis (if it’s not, these days, there are at-home tests that you can take like this one here). The main reason is because there are some STI/STDs that have similar symptoms to a yeast infection (including chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes), so you need to be sure that there aren’t any other underlying health issues going on and that you get the type of treatment that will resolve the actual issue that you have.
5 Tips for Preventing a Yeast Infection (When You’re Sexually Active)
GiphyAight, so now that I’ve hopefully broken down how a yeast infection and sexual activity can find themselves intersecting in some ways, I want to make sure that you’re aware of some of the proven things that you can do to prevent this from being a personal issue for you and your partner. Ready?
1. Take probiotics. Again, as someone who has a fungal sensitivity, I’ve had more yeast infections (not just vaginal ones either; my breasts aren’t small, so…) than I would’ve ever thought that I would over the course of my lifetime. Something that has helped to keep them at bay? Daily probiotics. Always remember that your vaginal tract is chocked full of both good and bad bacteria, so it’s wise to have as much good bacteria in there so that your system can combat the bad. Probiotics can help make that happen.
2. Use other kinds of condoms. Although roughly only 1-6 percent of people are allergic to latex (including latex condoms), if you sense that you might be one of them, always keep in mind that there are alternative options including polyisoprene and polyurethane ones. You can read more about the pros and cons of both of these by checking out “These Are The Kinds Of Condoms Your Vagina Would Actually Prefer.”
3. Clean up. You know how you’ve been told to wipe from front to back and not the other way around? Along these same lines, whether it’s a body part or a sex toy — don’t be out here getting all carried away by going into one, umm, hole with something and then moving into another hole without cleaning things off first. That’s a primo way for bacteria to spread around…and that’s just what a yeast infection wants to happen.
4. Be careful when it comes to hot tub sex. Speaking of breeding grounds for infection — if you’re on vacation and the urge hits you while you’re in a hot tub, uh, you might want to rethink that. I once read that “…the infection risk from hot tub is so significant that in the US, the Centers for Disease Control has released official advice on how to prevent this.” Yeah, you can never assume that people who were in the tub before you are as clean as you are or that the establishment that offers the tub does a thorough job of cleaning it either. So, if you want to be adventurous…try your hotel (or vacation house) shower or something. You’ll be much better off.
5. Keep your stress levels down. If your partner (or your relationship) is constantly stressing you out and you combat it with “make-up sex,” in its own weird way, that could be giving you a yeast infection too. Here’s how: stress lowers your immunity and when that happens, the cortisol levels in your body end up spiking which raises your blood sugar levels, which can make it easier for yeast to be “fed” and that can trigger a yeast infection. Just one more reason to not let a man stress you out, even if the sex is good. You could look up and end up with fried nerves and a nasty yeast infection — and who wants that, chile? Exactly.
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Featured image by AYO Production/Shutterstock
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So, we handpicked one hundred It Girls who embody that palpable It Factor moving through us as young Black women, the kind of motion lighting up the world both IRL and across the internet.
It Girl 100 became xoNecole’s most successful program, with the hashtag organically reaching more than forty million impressions on Instagram in just twenty-four hours. Yes, it caught on like wildfire because we celebrated some of the most brilliant and influential GenZennial women of color setting trends and shaping culture. But more than that, it resonated because the women we celebrated felt seen.
Many were already known in their industries for keeping this generation fly and lit, but rarely received recognition or flowers. It Girl 100 became a safe space to be uplifted, and for us as Black women to bask in what felt like an era of our brilliance, beauty, and boundless influence on full display.
And then, almost overnight, it was as if the rug was pulled from under us as Black women, as the It Girls of the world.
Our much-needed, much-deserved season of ease and soft living quickly metamorphosed into a time of self-preservation and survival. Our motion and economic progression seemed strategically slowed, our light under siege.
The air feels heavier now. The headlines colder. Our Black girl magic is being picked apart and politicized for simply existing.
With that climate shift, as we prepare to launch our second annual It Girl 100 honoree list, our team has had to dig deep on the purpose and intention behind this year’s list. Knowing the spirit of It Girl 100 is about motion, sauce, strides, and progression, how do we celebrate amid uncertainty and collective grief when the juice feels like it is being squeezed out of us?
As we wrestled with that question, we were reminded that this tension isn’t new. Black women have always had to find joy in the midst of struggle, to create light even in the darkest corners. We have carried the weight of scrutiny for generations, expected to be strong, to serve, to smile through the sting. But this moment feels different. It feels deeply personal.
We are living at the intersection of liberation and backlash. We are learning to take off our capes, to say no when we are tired, to embrace softness without apology.
And somehow, the world has found new ways to punish us for it.
In lifestyle, women like Kayla Nicole and Ayesha Curry have been ridiculed for daring to choose themselves. Tracee Ellis Ross was labeled bitter for speaking her truth about love. Meghan Markle, still, cannot breathe without critique.
In politics, Kamala Harris, Letitia James, and Jasmine Crockett are dragged through the mud for standing tall in rooms not built for them.
In sports, Angel Reese, Coco Gauff, and Taylor Townsend have been reminded that even excellence will not shield you from racism or judgment.
In business, visionaries like Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye and Melissa Butler are fighting to keep their dreams alive in an economy that too often forgets us first.
Even our icons, Beyoncé, Serena, and SZA, have faced criticism simply for evolving beyond the boxes society tried to keep them in.
From everyday women to cultural phenoms, the pattern is the same. Our light is being tested.
And yet, somehow, through it all, we are still showing up as that girl, and that deserves to be celebrated.
Because while the world debates our worth, we keep raising our value. And that proof is all around us.
This year alone, Naomi Osaka returned from motherhood and mental health challenges to reach the semifinals of the US Open. A’ja Wilson claimed another MVP, reminding us that beauty and dominance can coexist. Brandy and Monica are snatching our edges on tour. Kahlana Barfield Brown sold out her new line in the face of a retailer that had been canceled. And Melissa Butler’s company, The Lip Bar, is projecting a forty percent surge in sales.
We are no longer defining strength by how much pain we can endure. We are defining it by the unbreakable light we continue to radiate.
We are the women walking our daily steps and also continuing to run solid businesses. We are growing in love, taking solo trips, laughing until it hurts, raising babies and ideas, drinking our green juice, and praying our peace back into existence.
We are rediscovering the joy of rest and realizing that softness is not weakness, it is strategy.
And through it all, we continue to lift one another. Emma Grede is creating seats at the table. Valeisha Butterfield has started a fund for jobless Black women. Arian Simone is leading in media with fearless conviction. We are pouring into each other in ways the world rarely sees but always feels.
So yes, we are in the midst of societal warfare. Yes, we are being tested. Yes, we are facing economic strain, political targeting, and public scrutiny. But even war cannot dim a light that is divinely ours.
And we are still shining.
And we are still softening.
And we are still creating.
And we are still It.
That is the quiet magic of Black womanhood, our ability to hold both truth and triumph in the same breath, to say yes, and to life’s contradictions.
It is no coincidence that this year, as SheaMoisture embraces the message “Yes, And,” they stand beside us as partners in celebrating this class of It Girls. Because that phrase, those two simple words, capture the very essence of this moment.
Yes, we are tired. And we are still rising.
Yes, we are questioned. And we are the answer.
Yes, we are bruised. And we are still beautiful.
This year’s It Girl 100 is more than a list. It is a love letter to every Black woman who dares to live out loud in a world that would rather she whisper. This year’s class is living proof of “Yes, And,” women who are finding ways to thrive and to heal, to build and to rest, to lead and to love, all at once.
It is proof that our joy is not naive, our success not accidental. It is the reminder that our light has never needed permission.
So without further ado, we celebrate the It Girl 100 Class of 2025–2026.
We celebrate the millions of us who keep doing it with grace, grit, and glory.
Because despite it all, we still shine.
Because we are still her.
Because we are still IT, girl.
Meet all 100 women shaping culture in the It Girl 100 Class of 2025. View the complete list of honorees here.
Featured image by xoStaff
Then there were those who gave up their zip code altogether and found a permanent home in the skies. After years spent recruiting students for a university, Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare became a full-time travel influencer and founded her travel company, Shakespeare Agency. And she's not alone.
These stories mirror the experiences of women across the world. For millions, the pandemic induced a seismic shift in priorities and desires. Corporate careers that were once hailed as the ultimate “I made it” moment in one's career were pushed to the back burner as women quit their jobs in search of a more self-fulfilling purpose.
xoNecole spoke to these three Black women who used the pandemic as a springboard to make their wildest dreams a reality, the lessons they learned, and posed the question of whether they’ll ever return to cubicle life.
Answers have been edited for context and length.
xoNecole: How did the pandemic lead to you leaving the cubicle?
Randi: I was becoming stagnant. I was working in mortgage and banking but I felt like my personality was too big for that job! From there, I transitioned to radio but was laid off during the pandemic. That’s what made me go full throttle with entrepreneurship.
Gabrielle: I moved around a lot for work. Five times over a span of seven years. I knew I needed a break because I had experienced so much. So, I just quit one day. Effective immediately. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew I needed a break and to just regroup.
Lisa-Gaye: I was working in recruiting at a university and my dream job just kind of fell into my lap! But, I never got to fully enjoy it before the world shut down in March [2020] and I was laid off. On top of that, I was stuck in Miami because Jamaica had closed its borders due to the pandemic before I was able to return.
Randi O
xoN: Tell us about your journey after leaving Corporate America.
Randi: I do it all now! I have a podcast, I’m an on-air talent, I act, and I own a public relations company that focuses on social media engagement. It’s all from my network. When you go out and start a business, you can’t just say, “Okay I’m done with Corporate America,” and “Let me do my own thing.” If you don’t build community, if you don’t build a network it's going to be very hard to sustain.
Gabrielle: I realized in New York, there was not a lot to do for Black lesbians and queer folks. We don’t really have dedicated bars and spaces so I started doing events and it took off. I started focusing on my brand, Raw Honey. I opened a co-working space, and I was able to host an NYC Pride event in front of 100,000 people. I hit the ground running with Raw Honey. My events were all women coming to find community and come together with other lesbians and queer folks. I found my purpose in that.
Lisa-Gaye: After being laid off, I wrote out all of my passions and that’s how I came up with [my company] Shakespeare Agency. It was all of the things that I loved to do under one umbrella. The pandemic pulled that out of me. I had a very large social media following, so I pitched to hotels that I would feature them on my blog and social media. This reignited my passion for travel. I took the rest of the year to refocus my brand to focus solely on being a content creator within the travel space.
Gabrielle
xoN: What have you learned about yourself during your time as an entrepreneur?
Randi: [I learned] the importance of my network and community that I created. When I was laid off I was still keeping those relationships with people that I used to work with. So it was easy for me to transition into social media management and I didn’t have to start from scratch.
Gabrielle: The biggest thing I learned about myself was my own personal identity as a Black lesbian and how much I had assimilated into straight and corporate culture and not being myself. Now, I feel comfortable and confident being my authentic self. Now, I'm not sacrificing anything else for my career. I have a full life. I have friends. I have a social life. And when you are happy and have a full quality of life, I feel like [I] can have more longevity in my career.
Lisa-Gaye: [I'm doing] the best that I've ever done. The discipline that I’m building within myself. Nobody is saying, ‘Oh you have to be at work at this time.’ There’s no boss saying, ‘Why are you late?’ But, if I’m laying in bed at 10 a.m. then it's me saying [to myself], 'Okay, Lisa, get up, it's time for you to start working!’ That’s all on me.
xoNecole: What mistakes do you want to help people avoid when leaving Corporate America?
Randi: You have to learn about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. You have a fast season and a slow season and I started to learn that when you're self-employed the latter season hits hard. Don't get caught up on the lows, just keep going and don't stop. I’m glad I did.
Gabrielle: I think everyone should quit their job and just figure it out for a second. You will discover so much about yourself when you take a second to just focus on you. Your skill set will always be there. You can’t be afraid of what will happen when you bet on yourself.
Lisa-Gaye: When it comes to being an influencer the field is saturated and a lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome. There is nothing wrong with being an imposter but find out how to make it yours, how to make it better. If you go to the store, you see 10 million different brands of bread! But you are choosing the brand that you like because you like that particular flavor.
So be an imposter, but be the best imposter of yourself and add your own flair, your own flavor. Make the better bread. The bread that you want.
Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare
xoNecole: Will you ever return to your 9 to 5?
Randi: I wouldn’t go back to Corporate America. But I don’t mind working under someone. A lot of people try to get into this business saying, “I can't work under anyone.” That’s not necessarily the reason to start a business because you're always going to answer to somebody. Clients, brands, there’s always someone else involved.
Gabrielle: I went back! I really needed a break and I gave myself that. But, I realized I’m a corporate girl, [and] I enjoy the work that I do. I’m good at it and I really missed that side of myself. I have different sides of me and my whole identity is not Raw Honey or my queerness. A big side of me is business and that’s why I love having my career. Now I feel like my best self.
Lisa-Gaye: I really don’t. For right now, I love working for myself. It's gratifying, it's challenging, it's exciting. It’s a big deal for me to say I own my own business. That I am my own boss, and I'm a Black woman doing it.
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Featured image courtesy of Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare
Originally published on February 6, 2023