When a woman catches one of these infections, she may feel nothing at all or notice only a small discharge. If a doctor examines her at this stage, she may only see a mild reddening of the cervix with perhaps a small amount of discharge. The mild symptoms and minimal signs on examination make it even more important to routinely test for these infections. Some women will never know they had one of these infections until they try to get pregnant and find they have severe scarring of the tubes. These generally cause no symptoms when located on the cervix, and are usually found during routine PAP smears.
Vaginitis tends to be much more noticeable to an infected woman, since it often produces symptoms.
Common causes are the parasites trichomonas and pinworm, the yeast monilia, and the bacteria strep pyogenes. Trichomonas and monilia are extremely common and typically cause an itchy discharge from the vagina. Although the itch is disturbing, neither infection goes up into the uterus and tubes or invades the body, at least in women with normal immune systems. Therefore, neither is life-threatening. HPV and HSV can also cause vaginitis, but these usually produce no symptoms unless they are near the opening of the vagina, where warts from HPV or painful ulcers from HSV may be seen.