REVIEWS   

Minerva Ginecologica 2016 December;68(6):727-32

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Vulvodynia: current opinion and treatment strategies

Lavinia DOMENICI, Giorgia PERNIOLA, Margherita GIORGINI, Francesca LECCE, Carlotta BRACCHI, Angela MUSELLA, Claudia MARCHETTI, Violante DI DONATO, Federica TOMAO, Innocenza PALAIA, Paola CIOLLI, Nadia RECINE, Ludovico MUZII, Pierluigi BENEDETTI PANICI ✉

Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Urology, “Sapienza” University, Rome, Italy

Vulvodynia is a women’s health problem that may affect as many as 15% of women who seek gynecological care, and yet little attention is given to this condition and it is frequently dismissed as psychosomatic. Thus, vulvodynia still remains a major health problem in Western countries, leading to significant morbidity and a reduced quality of life for many women. This condition carries large costs incurred as a result of both medical treatment and lost productivity. Vulvodynia is becoming a universal priority in the prevention, care, education, and research areas of pain and its consequences and it remains one of the poorly understood complex chronic pain syndromes, representing a multifactorial clinical syndrome of unexplained vulvar pain and sexual dysfunction.