Vulvodynia: current opinion and treatment strategies.

Vulvodynia is a women's health problem that may affect as many as 15% of women who seek gynecological care, and yet little attention is given to this condition and it is frequently dismissed as psychosomatic. Thus, vulvodynia still remains a major health problem in Western countries, leading to significant morbidity and a reduced quality of life for many women. This condition carries large costs incurred as a result of both medical treatment and lost productivity. Vulvodynia is becoming a universal priority in the prevention, care, education, and research areas of pain and its consequences and it remains one of the poorly understood complex chronic pain syndromes, representing a multifactorial clinical syndrome of unexplained vulvar pain and sexual dysfunction.