INTRODUCTION
At the general practitioners’ office (GP) vaginal complaints are commonly presented. 1, 2, 3 The incidence of vaginal complaints in the Netherlands is 40-50 per 1000 female patients per year, of which half of them are 20 to 30 years old 2. Vaginal complaints are also recurrent 3, 4, 540 % of a sample of 3168 women (15-75 year of age), reportedly had vaginal complaints the week before. Vaginal complaints occur when women experience pain, irritation or itchiness in the vaginal area and/or classify their vaginal discharge as more or different (colour/ odour) than usual.
When women experience vaginal complaints, this can have many causes (see also appendix 1). They might vary from infections (e.g. vaginal candidiasis, bacterial vaginosis) to STDs (e.g. Chlamydia, Gonorrhoeae) or other sex-related damage or any other unidentified cause such as pain that stems from urinary tract infections, menstrual periods or vaginal atrophy. In a large amount of the cases, no microbiological cause is found. 2 Unexplained vaginal complaints also resolve by itself.1
The effectivity and efficiency of vaginal health care could be improved.6 Women with vaginal complaints make superfluous visits to their GP (e.g. vaginal discharge), leading to superfluous diagnostic tests such as unnecessary STD screening. Additionally, a substantial number of women experiencing vaginal complaints self-treat their symptoms and do not seek medical help.3, 4, 7, 8More than once stigma and shame related to sexually transmitted infections or fear play a role in the misdiagnosis and /or mistreatment. However, untreated (or maltreated) vaginal infections can have severe consequences that might eventually lead to infertility. Therefore, the symptoms should not be ignored. 9