title: Management of vaginal atrophy: a real mess. Results from the AGATA study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the management of vaginal atrophy (VA) in a population-based study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sub-study of a cross-sectional multicenter study on 913 postmenopausal women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Management of VA was investigated on the 274 women referring having received a previous diagnosis of VA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women had received, no therapy (9.8%), systemic hormones (9.2%), intra-vaginal estrogens (44.5%) or local non-hormonal (36.5%) therapy. There was heterogeneity of treatments. Local therapies were given in cycles, and used for a length of time ranging from 1 to 12 months. At the time of the investigation 59.5% of these women were not on treatment, either because following the physician's indication (31.1%) or because spontaneously withdrawing from treatment (68.9%). Reasons for withdrawing from therapy were insufficient symptom relief (46.6%), messiness (24.3%), difficulty in application (7.8%) and vaginal discharge (1.9%). At the time of investigation only 2.9% of treated women did not suffer from VA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study underlines the presence of a great confusion about the therapy used for VA, along with patients' dissatisfaction with actual treatments. The emerging evidence is that in real world VA remains untreated.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics , University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy and.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.affiliation: a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics , University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy and.
authors.forename: Anjeza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Xholli
authors.affiliation: b Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics , University of Udine , Udine , Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cagnacci
mesh_terms: D000282:Administration, Intravaginal; D000368:Aged; D001284:Atrophy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D004967:Estrogens / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014621:Vagina / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*; D014623:Vaginal Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens
keywords: Genitourinary syndrome of menopause; management; menopause; vaginal atrophy; vaginal health