National Institutes of Health Launches Vulvodynia Awareness Campaign

According to the National Institutes of Health news release, the Office of Research on Women's Health has launched the Vulvodynia Awareness Campaign to raise awareness about the unexplained pain and discomfort that nearly 14 million women have at one point in their lives.

The beginning of the campaign will be announced at the National Press Club located at 529 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, October 24, between 10 am-11am, and will be open to the public. Those who are responsible for this campaign are the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, the National Women's Health Resource Center, other National Institutes of Health components as well as thirty federal and non-federal partners.

According to the Mayo Clinic, vulvodynia means basically painful vulva. The symptoms of vulvodynia are quite clear and should not be dismissed lightly. These symptoms are burning, soreness, itching, stinging, rawness, painful intercourse as well as throbbing. Although this pain can stop as quickly as it came, the pain can be constant or intermittent and can last anywhere from months to years.

Since medical professionals do not know what causes vulvodynia, a list of contributing factors has been made. Some causes of vulvodynia can be from injury or irritation of the nerves that surround your vulvar area, past vaginal infections, allergies of the skin, muscle spasms and the change of estrogen levels when menopause is occurring. Many women who do have signs of vulvadynia have had a history of treatments for yeast infections. There is also proof that women who have been sexual abused do have symptoms of vulvodynia.

If you think that you may be having signs of vulvadynia, you must remember that this is a very common condition. One is six women are affected by vulvodynia sometime in their life. Do not just think that it will go away without treatment or without a gynecologist seeing you. It is very important that you speak to someone so that they can rule out the possibilities of it being something other than vulvodynia.