Prevalence, causes and outcome of vulval pain in a genitourinary medicine clinic population

A detailed assessment was completed on 150 consecutive new female patients attending a walk-in genitourinary medicine clinic, in order to elicit the features of vulval pain. Twenty patients (13.3%) experienced vulval pain, and of these, 15 (75%) had an infective cause demonstrated. Candidiasis was demonstrated in more than half (55%) of them and one-fifth had genital herpes. Of the 5 patients in whom no infection was present, 2 were diagnosed with the vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS) following their referral to the dedicated vulval clinic.