Vulvodynia refers to unprovoked pain in the area of the vulva. The pain sensation(s) that someone may encounter could be stinging, burning or irritation. At times it is even described as rawness. Localized vulvodynia known as “vestibulodynia” refers to pain that is provoked by touching the vestibule. This can happen with the first experience of a tampon, speculum or sexual activity. Delayed ons...

OBJECTIVE To determine the concordance between vaginal fluid Gram stains and pH obtained at speculum exam with similar stains and pH prepared from self-obtained vaginal swabs. METHODS Using vaginal fluid Gram stain, 129 pregnant women were screened for bacterial vaginosis at 24 to 29 weeks' gestation. Two smears were collected from each woman during the same prenatal visit: the first was prep...

BACKGROUND Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most significant cause of cervical cancer. In view of the number of drawbacks associated with endocervical sampling, the gold standard for HPV detection, this study examined the utility and specificity of vaginal sampling as an alternative for endocervical sampling for the routine detection of HPV. CASE STUDY The study comprised 51 women who tested...

The colours of birds are diverse but limited relative to the colours they can perceive. This mismatch may be partially caused by the properties of their colour-production mechanisms. Aside from pigments, several classes of highly ordered nanostructures (thin films, amorphous three-dimensional arrays) can produce a range of colours. However, the variability of any single nanostructural class has...

OBJECTIVES To develop scales assessing acceptability of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in adolescents, to compare acceptability of self to clinician testing, and to identify adolescent characteristics associated with acceptability. METHODS Female adolescents 14-21 years of age attending a hospital based teen health centre self collected vaginal samples and a clinician, using a speculum, c...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE In India, National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) introduced syndromic approach to treat patients with abnormal vaginal discharge without a need for laboratory tests. Simple tools like pH test and Whiff test can be done without high expertise, microscope and even speculum. This can improve diagnostic value of syndromic approach of abnormal vaginal discharge. The present...

THIS study is a follow-up of earlier reports on general practice by Collings (1950), Hadfield (1953) and Taylor (1954) and focusses on the doctor's tools just as the recent investigation by Eimerl and Pearson (1966) followed up the earlier classic of Bradford Hill to see what changes there had been since his report on the doctors' work-week was published in 1951. A large number of other studies...

We investigated the awareness of, and the attitude towards screening for, cervical cancer in Bangladesh. We performed a qualitative study using focus group discussions (FGD). The framework approach to qualitative analysis was used. The study was performed in the catchment areas of Addin Hospital, Jessore, Southern Bangladesh (peri-urban) and LAMB hospital, Parbatipur, North West Bangladesh (rur...