Vaginal Douching, Condom Use, and Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Chinese Female Sex Workers

Abstract

Background and Objective-Vaginal douching has been hypothesized to increase a woman's risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. However, data on the prevalence of this practice and its association with condom use and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are limited.

Vaginal Discharge in the Prostitutes of the Group Yèrêlon of Bobo-Dioulasso: Epidemiological, Clinical and Etiological Aspects

“…Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology The mean age in our series was 28.4 years. It is identical to that of Desai [6] in India, which was 28.5 years and superior to those of Wang [10] in China, Cornier [5] in Bulgaria and Reed [11] in Indonesia which were respectively 23.5 years, 23.9 years and 25.8 years.…”

“…Our rate of 50.4% is higher than those of Reed [11] in Indonesia and Wang [10] in China, which were 39% and 41% respectively. Higher rates were reported by Nguyen [9] in Vietnam and Fonck [1] in Kenya, which were 75.9% and 94%, respectively.…”

“…The data In terms of marital status, the percentages are disparate. Wang [10] in China reported 14% of singles and 52% of married or concubines. Reed [11] in Indonesia reported 12% of singles and 70% of divorced and Desai [6] in India found 41.7% of singles and 59.3% of married.…”

Occupational health and safety among commercial sex workers

“…There was a strong association between decreased condom use and douching, and over a third of women believed that douching could help prevent STI. However, reviews of the impact of douching on health show the practice to be highly associated with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and significantly but less so with ectopic pregnancy and other adverse outcomes including bacterial vaginosis, chlamydia infection, cervical cancer, and higher rates of HIV transmission (40,41) although data on condom use and douching are contradictory in direction across studies.…”

“…Wang et al (40) examined the relationships between vaginal douching, STI and condom use among Chinese female sex workers and found that vaginal douching was associated with a doubled history of STI infection. There was a strong association between decreased condom use and douching, and over a third of women believed that douching could help prevent STI.…”