Vaginal Douching & Association with Sexually Transmitted Infections among Female Sex Workers in a Prefecture of Yunnan Province, China

Vaginal douching is a common practice and has been hypothesised to increase a woman's risk for human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted infections. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of douching and association with sexually transmitted infections, genital symptoms and human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infections knowledge among female sex workers.

We conducted a cross-sectional study of 837 female sex workers with interviews and laboratory tests for human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infections in a prefecture of Yunnan Province in southern China.

• Vaginal douching was reported by 84% of the women. 
• We found a higher prevalence of vaginal douching practice among female sex workers of Han ethnicity, and who were single or cohabitating. 
• Douching was also significantly more common among more educated female sex workers and those with greater knowledge about human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infections and with female sex workers who experienced clinical symptoms in previous 12 months. 
• Douching was linked to higher risks of human immunodeficiency virus and herpes simplex virus type 2 infections after adjusting for confounding factors.

Medical professional and public health workers should correct women's misconception about the effectiveness of douching and discourage women from douching through educational activities. More prospective studies among female sex workers are urgently required to identify the relationship between vaginal douching and human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infections infection.

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By: Luo L1, Xu JJ2, Wang GX3, Ding GW4, Wang N4, Wang HB5.

• 1Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, PR China.
• 2Key Laboratory of Immunology of AIDS, Ministry of Health, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, PR China.
• 3Kaiyuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Yunnan, PR China.
• 4National Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, PR China.
• 5Peking University Clinical Research Institute, Beijing, PR China 

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