Read condition-specific symptoms and clinical context for Lactobacillus crispatus. A lactic-acid-producing resident that dominates one of the most common and most acidic vaginal community types.
Ravel and colleagues sequenced the vaginal microbiota of 396 asymptomatic North American women representing four ethnic groups and identified five community state types. Community state type I was dominated by L. crispatus and occurred in 26.2% of participants, and communities belonging to group I had the lowest median pH at 4.0 ± 0.3, against 5.3 ± 0.6 for the non-Lactobacillus-dominated group IV. PHAC describes Lactobacillus species generally as Gram-positive rods or coccobacilli that occasionally form short chains, non-spore-forming, non-motile, chemo-organotrophic and microaerophilic, and as part of the normal flora of humans and animals, generally regarded as safe for use in food. This profile describes a resident organism, not an infection.
This profile describes a normal resident of the vaginal and gastrointestinal microbiota, not an infection, so no symptoms are listed and none are invented. The community state type findings describe groups of asymptomatic women at one point in time; they are not a diagnosis, a test result or a prediction for any individual. PHAC records that Lactobacillus infections are uncommon and occur mainly in people who are immunocompromised, noting bacteraemia, septicaemia and multiple organ failure as rare outcomes of translocation from the gastrointestinal tract while stating that actual risk remains low. PHAC also notes that L. acidophilus — a different species — has been implicated in dental caries, which is recorded here so the statement is not misread as applying to L. crispatus.
Source check: 2026-09-20. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.