Search

Kathryn Witzeman,1 Ruby HN Nguyen,2 Alisa Eanes,3 Sawsan As-Sanie,4 Denniz Zolnoun51Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, CO, 2Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 3Pelvic Pain Research Unit, Division of Advanced Laparoscopy and Pelvic Pain, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, 4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Center for Neurosensory Disorders, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USABackground: An estimated 8.3%–16% of women experience vulvovaginal discomfort during their lifetime. Frequently these patients report provoked pain on contact or with attempted intercourse, commonly referred to as provoked vestibulodynia (PVD). Despite the burden of this condition, little is known about its potential etiologies including pelvic floor muscular dysfunction and mucosal components. This knowledge would be beneficial in developing targeted therapies including physical therapy.Objective: To explore the relative contribution of mucosal versus muscle pain sensitivity on pain report from intercourse among women with PVD.Design: In this proof of concept study, 54 women with PVD underwent a structured examination assessing mucosal and pelvic muscle sensitivity.Methods: We examined three mucosal sites in the upper and lower vestibule. Patients were asked to rate their pain on cotton swab palpation of the mucosa using a 10-point visual analog scale. Muscle pain was assessed using transvaginal application of pressure on right and left puborectalis, and the perineal muscle complex. The Gracely pain scale (0–100) was used to assess the severity of pain with intercourse, with women rating the lowest, average, and highest pain levels; a 100 rating the highest level of pain.Results: The lower vestibule’s mucosa 5.81 (standard deviation =2.83) was significantly more sensitive than the upper vestibule 2.52 (standard deviation =2.6) (P

Ruby HN Nguyen,1 Christin Veasley,2 Derek Smolenski1,3 1Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2National Vulvodynia Association, Silver Spring, MD, 3National Center for Telehealth and Technology, Defense Centers of Excellence, Department of Defense, Tacoma, WA, USA Background: The pattern and extent of clustering of comorbid pain conditions with vulvodynia is largely unknown. However, elucidating such patterns may improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in these common causes of chronic pain. We sought to describe the pattern of comorbid pain clustering in a population-based sample of women with diagnosed vulvodynia. Methods: A total of 1457 women with diagnosed vulvodynia self-reported their type of vulvar pain as localized, generalized, or both. Respondents were also surveyed about the presence of comorbid pain conditions, including temporomandibular joint and muscle disorders, interstitial cystitis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, and chronic headache. Age-adjusted latent class analysis modeled extant patterns of comorbidity by vulvar pain type, and a multigroup model was used to test for the equality of comorbidity patterns using a comparison of prevalence. A two-class model (no/single comorbidity versus multiple comorbidities) had the best fit in individual and multigroup models. Results: For the no/single comorbidity class, the posterior probability prevalence of item endorsement ranged from 0.9% to 24.4%, indicating a low probability of presence. Conversely, the multiple comorbidity class showed that at least two comorbid conditions were likely to be endorsed by at least 50% of women in that class, and irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia were the most common comorbidities regardless of type of vulvar pain. Prevalence of the multiple comorbidity class differed by type of vulvar pain: both (37.6% prevalence, referent), generalized (21.6% prevalence, adjusted odds ratio 0.41, 95% confidence interval 0.27–0.61), or localized (12.5% prevalence, adjusted odds ratio 0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.21–0.47). Conclusion: This novel work provides insight into potential shared mechanisms of vulvodynia by describing that a prominent comorbidity pattern involves having both irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia. In addition, the prevalence of a multiple comorbidity class pattern increases with increasing severity of vulvar pain. Keywords: vulvodynia, generalized, localized, comorbidity