Vaginal microbiota in vestibulodynia and vaginal epithelial homeostasis disruption

Vulvodynia (VVD) is a chronic disease defined as vulvar pain of at least three months duration, without a defined cause, that severely affects women health and quality of life. Despite many women worldwide are suffering from this condition, the origin and underlying mechanisms of this disease are still poorly understood, which makes the vulvodynia a complex condition without identifiable causes and limited treatment options. From September until November 2023, we collected stool and vaginal samples from 30 women affected by vulvodynia and 27 healthy women that represented the study control group. Bacterial gut and vaginal microbiome were characterized by amplicon sequencing on the MiSeq, Illumina integrated next generation sequencing instrument. Downstream analyses were carried out to assess the presence of compositional and functional differences between the control and the patient group.