Vestibulodynia At High Resolution: Omics Approach to Improve Diagnosis

According to recent nomenclature, vulvodynia is vulvar pain without a clear identifiable cause persisting for at least 3-months and distinguished from vulvar pain caused by a specific disorder (inflammatory, neoplastic, traumatic). Vulvodynia can be provoked (when the pain is felt after touching the area), or unprovoked (pain is constant). Localized provoked vulvodynia of the vestibule, known as vestibulodynia (VBD), is the most common manifestation of the disease (about 80%). Data collected suggests that up to 16% of women, particularly sexually active reproductive-aged women, suffers from this condition. Despite affecting almost 1 out of 8 women of all ages, vulvodynia remains completely unacknowledged to the most. These data highlight that VBD cannot be considered a rare disease, but it rather is a high frequency women's health condition, albeit neglected and hard to diagnose because