Latest Vagina Stories

Findings reported in this week's New England Journal of Medicine (November 3 issue) highlight promising findings from two Seattle-based researchers on the origins of bacterial vaginosis (BV). In a collaborative effort to identify specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis in vaginal-fluid samples, David Fredricks, MD, of the Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center...

By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women with cervical cancer that's treated with radiation have worse sexual functioning years after treatment than women who undergo surgery for the disease, a new study shows. In fact, women whose cervical cancer was treated surgically -- by removal of the uterus and any surrounding cancerous lymph nodes -- had sexual functioning identical to that of healthy women, Dr. Michael Frumovitz of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Electrical biofeedback, coupled with sexual cognitive-behavioral therapy, is effective in treating vaginismus -- a distressing condition marked by involuntary recurrent or persistent spasm of the muscles of the vagina that interferes with vaginal penetration, causing personal distress. The findings come from a small study conducted in Korea involving a group of women with the condition who were unable to engage in sexual intercourse, but were able to do so...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The presence of a specific type of bacteria in the rectum appears to reduce the risk of vaginal infections, researchers report. "The gut has been seen as a site which harbors pathogens, which can cause vaginal infection, principal investigator Dr. Sharon L. Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh commented. These findings are the "first to document that the lower gastrointestinal tract can also harbor the lactobacilli, which are beneficial for vaginal...