Is Bacterial Vaginosis a STD or is it just a woman thing?

i am a nurse practitioner and as one who treats STDs and BV nearly daily, i am horrified by some of these answers you have gotten. there is still some controversery to calling BV an STD. However, I recently got information that while BV has an incident rate of 3% in NUNS(!!), prositiutes have a 70% or more incident rate. now, that said, anyone can get these when, for when whatever reason, the vaginal flora and pH are skewed, be it sexual contact, douching, etc. IT IS A BACERIAL INFECTION!!! IT DOES REQUIRE ANTIBIOTICS TO CURE! but is it very curable and very common. please feel free to email me if you have more questions. BV does not cause cancer, though it can lead to severe PID that can cause infertility and other problems.

A woman thing.
((EDITED))

Both. Women who have never had sex are very seldom affected by this. It is not known why. Here is everything you need to know about it from the Centers for Diseaese Control website:

http://www.cdc.gov/std/bv/stdfact-bacter...

To the person who said it is a bacteria and needs an antibiotic: You could not be more wrong.

Antibiotics will furthur exacerbate the problem and create a very unpleasent situation. While I am sure no competent Dr. would prescribe one I would hate for someone to take this persons advice.

What is needed is a probiotic to restore the "good bacteria" in the body. Yogurt has these good bacterias as well as over the counter Probiotic suppliments.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/update...
http://sti.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/f...
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a change in the balance of bacteria that are normally present in the vagina, so no it is not an std. It's not usually necessary for your sex partner to be treated.
I am a nurse for over 20 yrs
Its just bacteria.....needs an antibiotic...check webmd.com and then see a doc hun.
Bacterial vaginosis is a mild infection in the vagina caused by a type of bacteria (germ). The vagina normally contains a lot of "good" bacteria, called lactobacilli (say: "lack-toe bah-sil-li"), and a few other types of bacteria, called anaerobes (say: "ann-air-robes"). Too many anaerobes can cause bacterial vaginosis. We don't know why the anaerobe bacteria overgrow and cause this infection