There comes a time in most women's lives when she looks down at her underwear and wonders, What the actual eff is that?! Okay, maybe that's a little extreme. But weird-colored vaginal discharge can seriously freak you TF out—especially when it's brown. But before you start spiraling, it's probably helpful to know what that brown discharge means , when it's NBD, and when you should see your ob-gyn about it. Vaginal discharge is, basically, mucosal secretions produced by glands in your cervix and walls of your vagina, according to the U. National Library of Medicine.