The complaint of abnormal
vaginal discharge is very common.An excessive degree of vaginal
secretion is not necessarily pathologically infected, but could be hormonal. The aim of this study was to find out the
perception and
knowledge of
vaginal discharge among married
females of reproductive
age group. Though many studies have been done to estimate the
prevalence and the various causes of
vaginal discharge, not much data is available regarding what
women know about
vaginal discharge, their
attitudes, health care seeking behaviour and the various correlates regarding the same in rural setting. With this background, we conducted this study in our rural field practice areas in Aligarh. A total of 100 married
females (15–45 years
age group) were taken,
who were presenting with complaint of
vaginal discharge.The results showed that 100% of
women reported the cause of
vaginal discharge to be weakness and
heat. 87% of
women said the cause was due to
backache, 93% of
women reported the cause to be
melting of
bones. The effects of
vaginal discharge as reported by majority of
women were weakness(100%),
backache(100%),
pain in lower
abdomen(37%), bodyache(81%),
pallor(75%),etc. Also few
women consulted doctors for
treatment.36% of them took no
treatment.
Primary health care providers can
play a major
role in
health education for
women in reproductive
age group and educate them on when to seek medical advice. This can be integrated to
reproductive health care programmes such as
family planning,
maternal and child health services which
will lead to early
detection of
vaginal discharge.