title: Vulvodynia: current opinion and treatment strategies.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Urology, "Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy - lavinia.domenici@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lavinia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Domenici
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perniola
authors.forename: Margherita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giorgini
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lecce
authors.forename: Carlotta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bracchi
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Musella
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marchetti
authors.forename: Violante
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Donato
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tomao
authors.forename: Innocenza
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Palaia
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ciolli
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Recine
authors.forename: Ludovico
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Muzii
authors.forename: Pierluigi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Benedetti Panici
mesh_terms: D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012735:Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological / Q000209:etiology; D056650:Vulvodynia / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*