One in twelve women living in Michigan suffer from vulvodynia.
And what is vulvodynia? It’s a pain in a woman’s external genital area. It could be a chronic pain, or it could come from some sort of contact such as from sex or riding a bicycle.
So where does this 8% of Michigan women figure come from? It comes from a survey published in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY entitled PREVALENCE AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF VULVODYNIA IN A POPULATION-BASED SAMPLE.
Researchers talked with over 2000 Michigan women, and they found that 8% of those surveyed in this one Michigan region reported some sort of genital pain consistent with vulvodynia. There was no age group that was immune, although they did find that women over the age of 70 reported less pain than younger women. The researchers say that they expect this figure to be consistent with other research over a wider geographic range.
Vulvodynia is often misdiagnosed as either a yeast infection or low estrogen levels. But when those treatments don’t work, the patient should ask their doctor to test for vulvodynia – a test that is done with just a simple Q-Tip.
Cures vary from woman to woman, and not all involve surgery. One option that some women have found helpful is as easy as a change in diet — as easy as cutting out chocolate can be for a woman who is suffering from genital pain can be.