The bacterial flora of the vaginal vestibule, urethra and vagina in the normal premenopausal woman.

A study of 100 healthy, premenopausal women demonstrated that lactobacilli and staphylococci are the predominant normal bacterial flora in the vaginal vestibule, urethra and vagina, with diphtheroids, streptococci and micrococci occurring in decreasing order. Gram-negative enterobacteria are a rare occurrence in the normal bacterial flora of the vaginal vestibule (7 per cent), urethra (9 per cent) and vagina (6 per cent). A second study of 10 healthy premenopausal women in whom serial examinations were done confirmed the findings of the first study and revealed that when gram-negative enterobacteria do colonize the normal vaginal vestibule, urethra and vagina colonization is of a transitory nature since enterobacteria tend to disappear spontaneously.