Vestibulodynia: A Multifactorial Syndrome: A Case Report

Vulvodynia is a difficult-to-treat, chronic, multifactorial malady that drastically lowers the quality of life of afflicted patients.

A 68-year-old woman, who had been treated successfully for vulvodynia years before with medication, returned with a recurrence of vulvodynia symptoms that this time did not respond to treatment. She now had biopsy-confirmed lichen sclerosis and was found to have markedly elevated serum testosterone levels. An imaging study detected an ovarian lesion that, on removal, proved to be afibrothecoma. Postoperatively the testosterone rapidly dropped to normal levels. What was unexpected and unusual was that the vulvar pain disappeared and the lichen sclerosis markedly regressed.

This case demonstrates a hormonal trigger for the development of vulvodynia.