HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at Orlando, Florida, USA or Virtually from your home or work.

3rd Edition of Global Conference on Gynecology & Women's Health

October 27-29, 2025 | Orlando, Florida, USA

Gynec 2025

Racial and ethnic disparities in vulvodynia treatment: A Cross-sectional TriNetX database analysis

Speaker at Gynecology & Women's Health - Soowan Jeong
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, United States
Title : Racial and ethnic disparities in vulvodynia treatment: A Cross-sectional TriNetX database analysis

Abstract:

Introduction: As a chronic pain condition, vulvodynia has been associated with heterogeneity in patient experiences, diagnosis, and outcomes. For women of color with vulvodynia, these differences in pain evaluation and treatment may have implications for management of this condition.

Objective: To identify disparities in vulvodynia treatment between Black vs. White and Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic patient populations.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of all available records from TriNetX database 11/8/24. Standardized mean difference used to evaluate treatment differences between racial and ethnic vulvodynia cohorts with Bonferroni correction significance of P= 0.00294 due to comparison of 19 factors.

Results: There was a statistically significantly higher rate of dyspareunia in the White cohort compared to the Black cohort (p < 0.0001). Additionally, there were statistically significant differences in treatments between cohorts with White patients being more likely to have vulvar excision procedures and be treated with antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and vaginal estrogens (p < 0.0001) and Black patients more likely receiving NSAIDs, acetaminophen, aspirin, hydroxyzine, skeletal muscle relaxants, topical analgesics, and topical antifungals (p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences between cohorts in vaginismus (p = 0.0902) or physical medicine and rehabilitation modalities (p = 0.8047), psychotherapy services (p = 0.6983), topical lidocaine, (p = 0.0209), botulinum toxin (p = 0.8562), gabapentin (p = 0.0291), and topical triamcinolone (p = 0.8945).  

32,433 patients were identified in the non-Hispanic patient cohort with a mean age of 48.5 years and 3,049 patients identified in the Hispanic patient cohort with a mean age of 43.3 years. There were statistically significant differences in treatments with Hispanic patients being more likely to receive NSAIDs and acetaminophen (p < 0.0001) and non-Hispanic patients more likely to receive physical medicine and rehabilitation treatment modalities and be treated with aspirin, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, topical triamcinolone, and topical estrogens (p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic cohorts in dyspareunia (p = 0.5234) or vaginismus (p = 0.0902) or treatment methods of vulvar excision procedures (p = 0.0149), psychotherapy services (p = 0.0735), topical lidocaine (p = 0.9157), botulinum toxin (p = 0.0059), gabapentin (p = 0.0295), hydroxyzine (p = 0.0208), skeletal muscle relaxants (p = 0.0077), topical analgesics (p = 0.0140), or topical antifungals (p = 0.0030).

Conclusion: There were several differences between racial and ethnic groups in rates of procedures and treatments. Findings suggest there may be differences in how physicians diagnose vulvodynia and prescribe treatments. As a database study, this investigation is limited in that treatments are listed without a specific indication. Future directions include prospective investigation of treatment association with differences in outcomes and pain scores in vulvodynia among racial and ethnic cohorts.

Biography:

Soowan Jeong received her B.A. in public health and psychology at Johns Hopkins University in 2021. She worked as a clinical research assistant at the Johns Hopkins NTM and Bronchiectasis Research Program for two years before starting medical school at Case Western Reserve University in 2023.

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