Dataset Information

The burden of bacterial vaginosis: women's experience of the physical, emotional, sexual and social impact of living with recurrent bacterial vaginosis.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Bacterial vaginosis is a common vaginal infection, causing an abnormal vaginal discharge and/or odour in up to 50% of sufferers. Recurrence is common following recommended treatment. There are limited data on women's experience of bacterial vaginosis, and the impact on their self-esteem, sexual relationships and quality of life. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and impact of recurrent bacterial vaginosis on women. METHODS: A social constructionist approach was chosen as the framework for the study. Thirty five women with male and/or female partners participated in semi-structured interviews face-to-face or by telephone about their experience of recurrent bacterial vaginosis. RESULTS: Recurrent bacterial vaginosis impacted on women to varying degrees, with some women reporting it had little impact on their lives but most reporting it had a moderate to severe impact. The degree to which it impacted on women physically, emotionally, sexually and socially often depended on the frequency of episodes and severity of symptoms. Women commonly reported that symptoms of bacterial vaginosis made them feel embarrassed, ashamed, 'dirty' and very concerned others may detect their malodour and abnormal discharge. The biggest impact of recurrent bacterial vaginosis was on women's self-esteem and sex lives, with women regularly avoiding sexual activity, in particular oral sex, as they were too embarrassed and self-conscious of their symptoms to engage in these activities. Women often felt confused about why they were experiencing recurrent bacterial vaginosis and frustrated at their lack of control over recurrence. CONCLUSION: Women's experience of recurrent bacterial vaginosis varied broadly and significantly in this study. Some women reported little impact on their lives but most reported a moderate to severe impact, mainly on their self-esteem and sex life. Further support and acknowledgement of these impacts are required when managing women with recurrent bacterial vaginosis.

SUBMITTER: Bilardi JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3770676 | biostudies-other | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Research in children should strike the right balance between protecting underage study subjects and advancing the medical field. This study gives insight into the emotional burden that common invasive research procedures in asthma research have on young children, both from the child and parent perspective. Puppetry was used to stimulate children (age 5-6 years) to explain their emotional burden prior to and after the research procedures. We operationalised emotional burden as willingness to participate in future research and reluctance towards participation. Parents filled out a questionnaire on this topic. Symptomatic patients as well as healthy controls were analysed. Forty-one children were included. Children's anticipatory fear for future research showed a clear decrease of 0.7?±?1.6 on a 5-point Likert scale as a consequence of participation (p?=?0.02). Sixty percent of all participating children explicitly indicated willingness to undergo identical research procedures again. Children uninformed by their parents about the venipuncture were significantly more reluctant to the venipuncture after the procedure (p?<?0.01), compared to children who had been informed (4.0?±?0.9 resp. 2.8?±?1.2).Conclusion: This study suggests that the emotional burden of participation in asthma research for underage children can be prevented when they are properly informed and decreases as a consequence of participations. We believe increased emphasis should be placed on informing children and evaluating the emotional impact of research to help caretakers and research ethics committees make informed decisions about participation of children in medical research. What is Known: • Medical professionals and parents are likely to overestimate children's discomfort undergoing (invasive) research procedures. • Two thirds of children (age 6-18 years) participating in medical research indicated that they would participate in the same research study again. What is New: • Pre-school children experience little emotional burden during invasive procedures in asthma research. • Proper communication about (invasive) research procedures in pre-school children helps to reduce the anticipatory fear of these procedures in the future.

Project description:BackgroundThe pathogenesis of bacterial vaginosis (BV) remains elusive. BV may be more common among women who have sex with women (WSW). The objective of this study was to use 454 pyrosequencing to investigate the vaginal microbiome of WSW, women who have sex with women and men (WSWM), and women who have sex with men (WSM) with BV to determine if there are differences in organism composition between groups that may inform new hypotheses regarding the pathogenesis of BV.MethodsVaginal swab specimens from eligible women with BV at the Mississippi State Department of Health STD Clinic were used. After DNA extraction, 454 pyrosequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene sequences was performed. Sequence data was classified using the Ribosomal Database Program classifer. Complete linkage clustering analysis was performed to compare bacterial community composition among samples. Differences in operational taxonomic units with an abundance of ? 2% between risk behavior groups were determined. Alpha and beta diversity were measured using Shannon's Index implemented in QIIME and Unifrac analysis, respectively.Results33 WSW, 35 WSWM, and 44 WSM were included. The vaginal bacterial communities of all women clustered into four taxonomic groups with the dominant taxonomic group in each being Lactobacillus, Lachnospiraceae, Prevotella, and Sneathia. Regarding differences in organism composition between risk behavior groups, the abundance of Atopobium (relative ratio (RR)=0.24; 95%CI 0.11-0.54) and Parvimonas (RR=0.33; 95%CI 0.11-0.93) were significantly lower in WSW than WSM, the abundance of Prevotella was significantly higher in WSW than WSWM (RR=1.77; 95%CI 1.10-2.86), and the abundance of Atopobium (RR=0.41; 95%CI 0.18-0.88) was significantly lower in WSWM than WSM. Overall, WSM had the highest diversity of bacterial taxa.ConclusionThe microbiology of BV among women in different risk behavior groups is heterogeneous. WSM in this study had the highest diversity of bacterial taxa. Additional studies are needed to better understand these differences.

Dataset Information

The burden of bacterial vaginosis: women's experience of the physical, emotional, sexual and social impact of living with recurrent bacterial vaginosis.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets