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Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey

BACKGROUND: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is experienced by up to 10% of pre-menopausal women globally, yet there is limited research exploring the perspective of women living with this challenging condition. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with Australian women experiencing RVVC wer...

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Autores principales: Bradfield Strydom, Moira, Walpola, Ramesh L., McMillan, Sara, Khan, Sohil, Ware, Robert S., Tiralongo, Evelin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9487134/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36123738
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-01973-x
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author Bradfield Strydom, Moira
Walpola, Ramesh L.
McMillan, Sara
Khan, Sohil
Ware, Robert S.
Tiralongo, Evelin
author_facet Bradfield Strydom, Moira
Walpola, Ramesh L.
McMillan, Sara
Khan, Sohil
Ware, Robert S.
Tiralongo, Evelin
author_sort Bradfield Strydom, Moira
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is experienced by up to 10% of pre-menopausal women globally, yet there is limited research exploring the perspective of women living with this challenging condition. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with Australian women experiencing RVVC were conducted between April–July 2021. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was conducted. RESULTS: Ten RVVC patients were interviewed. IPA revealed an uncertain journey living with RVVC for all participants ranging from initial symptoms and difficulties in obtaining a diagnosis, the trial and error of symptom management, to the overall debilitating impact of living with a personal and intimate health condition. Four key themes were identified: Theme 1 outlined challenges and delays in diagnosis and clinically appropriate management. Theme 2 found that health care professional (HCP) knowledge limitations impacted RVVC management. Theme 3 illustrated the consequences of a lack of HCP support leading to self-referral and self-education. Theme 4 details the significant emotional and psycho-social repercussions of RVVC. CONCLUSIONS: This debilitating, life-long disease has a prolonged effect on women both physically and psychologically. Living with RVVC seems an uncertain journey that, to a large degree, women feel they must navigate alone. While resilience and self-empowerment were noted, better support through evidence-based treatment options, educated and evidence-informed HCPs and a sympathetic social support network is needed to decrease the disease burden. Future clinical management guidelines and patient support need to consider the findings of this study. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-022-01973-x.
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spelling pubmed-94871342022-09-21 Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey Bradfield Strydom, Moira Walpola, Ramesh L. McMillan, Sara Khan, Sohil Ware, Robert S. Tiralongo, Evelin BMC Womens Health Research BACKGROUND: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is experienced by up to 10% of pre-menopausal women globally, yet there is limited research exploring the perspective of women living with this challenging condition. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with Australian women experiencing RVVC were conducted between April–July 2021. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was conducted. RESULTS: Ten RVVC patients were interviewed. IPA revealed an uncertain journey living with RVVC for all participants ranging from initial symptoms and difficulties in obtaining a diagnosis, the trial and error of symptom management, to the overall debilitating impact of living with a personal and intimate health condition. Four key themes were identified: Theme 1 outlined challenges and delays in diagnosis and clinically appropriate management. Theme 2 found that health care professional (HCP) knowledge limitations impacted RVVC management. Theme 3 illustrated the consequences of a lack of HCP support leading to self-referral and self-education. Theme 4 details the significant emotional and psycho-social repercussions of RVVC. CONCLUSIONS: This debilitating, life-long disease has a prolonged effect on women both physically and psychologically. Living with RVVC seems an uncertain journey that, to a large degree, women feel they must navigate alone. While resilience and self-empowerment were noted, better support through evidence-based treatment options, educated and evidence-informed HCPs and a sympathetic social support network is needed to decrease the disease burden. Future clinical management guidelines and patient support need to consider the findings of this study. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-022-01973-x. BioMed Central 2022-09-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9487134/ /pubmed/36123738 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-01973-x Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Bradfield Strydom, Moira
Walpola, Ramesh L.
McMillan, Sara
Khan, Sohil
Ware, Robert S.
Tiralongo, Evelin
Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
title Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
title_full Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
title_fullStr Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
title_full_unstemmed Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
title_short Lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
title_sort lived experience of medical management in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a qualitative study of an uncertain journey
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9487134/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36123738
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-01973-x
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