International Journal of STD & AIDS > Volume 17, Number 9 > Pp. 631-632

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lee, D M Articles by Fairley, C K Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Audit reports

Is routine vaginal examination necessary for asymptomatic women attending sexual health services?

D M Lee, M Y Chen, C S Bradshaw and C K Fairley

Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

The aim of this study was to determine whether our sexual health service could be streamlined by dispensing with routine vaginal examination of asymptomatic women, without missing important diagnoses.

This was an audit of asymptomatic women presenting to the centre who had had a Papanicolaou (PAP) smear in the previous two years.

Of the 421 women who were eligible, no abnormalities were found on genital inspection in 392 (93%) individuals. Abnormalities detected on clinical examination included one case (0.2%) with mucopurulent cervicitis that tested positive for Chlamydia trachomatis, four (1%) with warts or molluscum contagiosum, and one with an asymptomatic genital ulcer of unknown cause.

Dispensing with the vaginal examination in asymptomatic women who have had a speculum examination as part of biennial cervical screening may be appropriate in settings where sensitive non-invasive testing for sexually transmitted infections (STI) is in use and STI prevalence is low.

Key Words: STI SCREEN • WOMEN • ASYMPTOMATIC • GENITAL EXAMINATION • VAGINAL EXAMINATION

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. H Singh, E. J Erbelding, J. M Zenilman, and K. G Ghanem The role of speculum and bimanual examinations when evaluating attendees at a sexually transmitted diseases clinic Sex Transm Inf, June 1, 2007; 83(3): 206 - 210. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]