Vaginitis

Symptoms of vaginitis are nonspecific, and neither self-diagnosis nor diagnosis by a physician is reliable without laboratory confirmation. The management of vaginitis remains largely empirical, and many assume that vaginitis is never life-threatening and that empirical therapy is always harmless. Vulvovaginitis, although frequently the result of infection, may also have noninfectious causes (Table 1); moreover, mixed infections are not uncommon.Candida VulvovaginitisThe epidemiologic data on candida vulvovaginitis, a nonreportable disease, are incomplete. Prevalence estimates rely mainly on self-reported histories of diagnosis by a physician. Vulvovaginal candidiasis is routinely diagnosed without the benefit of microscopy or culture, and as many . . .