Vulvodynia: A disease commonly hidden in plain sight

Pedro Vieira-Baptista; Joana Lima-Silva; Faustino R Pérez-López; Mario Preti; Jacob Bornstein

doi:10.1016/j.crwh.2018.e00079

Vulvodynia: A disease commonly hidden in plain sight

Case Rep Womens Health. 2018 Sep 12:20:e00079. doi: 10.1016/j.crwh.2018.e00079. eCollection 2018 Oct.

Authors

Pedro Vieira-Baptista^{1

2}, Joana Lima-Silva², Faustino R Pérez-López³, Mario Preti⁴, Jacob Bornstein⁵

Affiliations

¹ Hospital Lusíadas Porto, Portugal.
² Unidade de Tracto Genital Inferior, Serviço de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia, Centro Hospitalar de São João, Porto, Portugal.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Zaragoza, Faculty of Medicine, Lozano-Blesa University Hospital, Zaragoza, Spain.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya and Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel.

Abstract

•Vulvodynia affects at least 6% of women, and can be found at any age and in all ethnic groups.•The diagnosis is one of exclusion but is very often missed.•Women with vulvodynia are frequently misdiagnosed as having vaginismus.•Failure to make the diagnosis often leads to irrelevant or deleterious examinations and treatments.

Keywords: ISSVD; Vestibulodynia; Vulvar diseases; Vulvar pain; Vulvovdynia.

Publication types

Editorial