Clinical Investigation

Vaginal douching behavior of women and relationship among vaginal douching and vaginal discharge and demographic factors

10.5505/tjod.2011.57805

  • Didem Sunay
  • Erdal Kaya
  • Yusuf Ergün

Turk J Obstet Gynecol 2011;8(4):264-271

Objective: To investigate vaginal douching behavior of women and relationship among vaginal douching and vaginal discharge and demographic factors. Design: Cross-sectional and observational. Setting: Out-patient clinic of gynecology. Patients: Two hundred women with abnormal vaginal discharge and 150 women without abnormal vaginal discharge who were married or sexually active and 15-49 years of age were included into study. Interventions: Questionnaire forms consisted of 13 questions were performed by face to face interviews. Main outcome measures: Vaginal douching behavior, socio-demographic characteristics and relationship between vaginal discharge and vaginal douching. Results: It was determined that 59.4% of women had vaginal douching and vaginal douching was commonly made after sexual intercourse (%49.7). Risk of abnormal vaginal discharge was found to be increased 3.9 fold in women who had vaginal douching compared to those who had not (p=0.001, OR=3.86, %95 Confidence Interval= 0.651-1.534) and vaginal douching behavior was found to be higher in those married and with low income (p=0.030 and p=0.001, respectively).

Keywords: Vaginal douching, vaginal discharge