A new study showed that more research is needed on treatment for vulvodynia
Treatment recommendations for provoked vulvodynia (PVD) are based on clinical experiences and there has been a need for systematically summarizing the controlled trials in this field. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of randomized controlled trials and non-randomized studies of interventions for PVD, and to assess the certainty of the scientific evidence, in order to advance treatment guidelines.
We included randomized controlled trials and non-randomized studies of interventions with a control group, evaluating the effects of a wide range of interventions. Most results were found to have very low certainty of evidence (according to GRADE), which means that we are unable to draw any conclusions about effects of the interventions. Multimodal physiotherapy was the only intervention with some evidential support (low certainty of evidence). It was not possible to perform meta-analyses due to a heterogeneity in interventions and comparisons. In addition, there was a heterogeneity in outcome measures, which underlines the need to establish joint core outcome sets. Our result underscores the need of stringent trials and defined core outcome sets for PVD.
Read the full article here: Bohm-Starke, Nina., Wilbe Ramsay, Karin., Nordgren, Birgitta., Sjöberg, Inga., Moberg, Klas., Flink, Ida (2022) Treatment of Provoked Vulvodynia: A Systematic Review. The Journal of Sexual Medicine