Vaginal discharge in general practice - women's perceptions, beliefs and behaviour

Abstract

Objectives - To describe women's perceptions and beliefs about their vaginal secretion and to relate these to their behaviour with respect to complaints of vaginal discharge.

Design - A multi-practice study including questionnaires for women and doctors and a semi-structured interview study.

Setting - North Jutland County and Aarhus County, Denmark.

Subjects - 283 women with and 417 women without complaints of vaginal discharge answered a questionnaire about their vaginal secretion. Ten women with vaginal discharge took part in the indepth interviews.

Results - 179/274 (65%) women with and 111/417 (27%) women without complaints of vaginal discharge were bothered by their usual secretion. In 54/269 (20%) women with complaints, the pelvic examination was normal. In 59/416 (14%) women without complaints, the doctor found an abnormal vaginal secretion. Most women complaining of vaginal discharge had an external locus of control in relation to their symptoms, but an internal locus of control in relation to health in general. Fear of having a serious disease or a sexually transmitted disease was the reason for the visit to the general practitioner in 164/281 (58%).

Conclusion - Women's perceptions and beliefs about their vaginal secretion varied and were related to their health seeking behaviour. In addition to information about possible biological causes of vaginal discharge, the general practitioner should also actively seek information about the women's perception of normality and beliefs in relation to the symptoms she experiences.

Key Words:

• vaginal discharge
• perceptions
• normality
• beliefs
• behaviour
• general practice