Jet-setting, club-hopping divas such as Paris Hilton, Kate Moss and Lindsay Lohan have been caught in all their glory recently, playing peekaboo with their privates for the paparazzi.
Without a doubt, the pluckiest fashion trend du jour -- going commando (clubspeak for not wearing any undies) -- guarantees starlet's faces, and other body parts, remain in the news for everyone to see.
Lohan accidentally mooned her teenaged audience at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards last April as she was running up on stage and then gave a shocking full-frontal shot as she stepped out of a boat at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
Tori Spelling, another notorious knickerless diva, made her preference for going without panties public on national television when Tonight Show host Jay Leno hoisted her up, treating his audience to a rather revealing view.
In typical Spelling fashion, the only thing that upset her about the unscheduled flash of flesh was she "had not shaved down there" beforehand.
And then there is Hilton and raunchy rocker Courtney Love, who played a game of who-can-outflash-the-other at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian fundraiser in March.
A 2004 study by the New York-based clothier Freshpair revealed 9% of men and 7%of women never wear briefs, while 25-30% do only occasionally.
It might all sound rather skanky but Ottawa gynecologist Dr. Gihad Shabib says it's actually a healthy practice.
"More than half the women I'm seeing are in with yeast infections," says Shabib, who practices out of the Kilborn Medical Centre and the Women's Health Centre. "Since these infections thrive in moist, dark areas of the skin, I recommend my patients not to wear underwear at home.
"The pubic area has to be well ventilated. For those at risk, not wearing underwear is a healthy thing to do."
The real risk behind yeast infections is that, undiagnosed, they can lead to Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome or VVS, a burning vaginal infection so painful it can make intercourse -- not to mention just walking -- too painful to do.
VVS was first diagnosed in the mid-1990s and the estimates are 14% of the female population now suffers from the ailment. For them going commando isn't an option. Wearing undies is too painful.
The situation is different for women who prefer, as Brooke Shields used to say, that nothing come between them and their jeans. Denim against delicate naked flesh is just asking for chafing and is an ideal environment for an infection. If you have to wear your jeans as tight as possible, Shabib doesn't recommend going bareback.
"Some women wear pants so tight they seal the genitals in place. In these cases, you have to wear cotton underwear in order to create as much ventilation as possible," he advises.
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