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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. HIV and STIs
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1549331
This article is part of the Research Topic Reproductive Infectious Diseases: Matters Across the Spectrum of Reproductive Health View all 3 articles
Comparison of bacterial vaginosis symptoms reported in social media vs. those reported by patients
Provisionally accepted- 1 Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- 2 Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
We compared descriptions of symptomatology of bacterial vaginosis (BV) on social media platforms with patients' report of symptoms in clinically diagnosed BV, vulvovaginal candidiasis and vulvodynia. Social media was more likely to report burning (45% of posts), itching (45%) or pain (23%) as symptoms of BV than patients (moderate-severe itching 30%, burning 21% or pain 21%). Although pain was reported more often by people with vulvodynia, other symptoms were not different across diagnoses. Social media overemphasizes the ability of symptoms to allow self-diagnosis of vaginitis, which can lead to delayed treatment, highlighting the need to promote accurate health information online.
Keywords: bacterial vaginosis, VAGINAL HEALTH, Vaginal Discharge, Vulvovaginal itching, Social Media
Received: 20 Dec 2024; Accepted: 17 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Velmahos, Cooley Demidkina and Mitchell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Caroline Mitchell, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
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