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. 2024 Jan 1;143(1):6-8.
doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005445. Epub 2023 Nov 9.

Incidence of Abnormal Findings During Pelvic Examinations in Women Aged 21-35 Years

Nicole Norby  1 , Priya Sabu, Tonja Locklear, Anna Shvygin, Eduardo Lara-Torre, Isaiah M Johnson
Affiliations

Incidence of Abnormal Findings During Pelvic Examinations in Women Aged 21-35 Years

Nicole Norby et al. Obstet Gynecol. .

Abstract

To describe the incidence of abnormal gynecologic examination findings in asymptomatic compared with symptomatic patients during preventive visits, we conducted a retrospective study of 1,121 visits for patients between the ages of 21 and 35 years from January 2017 to March 2017. Only 1.2% (95% CI, 0.5%,1.9%) of asymptomatic patients had abnormal findings on pelvic examination, compared with 32.4% (95% CI, 27.0%, 37.8%) of those with symptoms ( P ≤.001). In symptomatic patients, the most common symptoms were vaginal discharge (25.1%), pelvic pain (16.4%), and vaginal bleeding (15.7%). In asymptomatic patients, the most common findings were bacterial vaginosis and Candida infection. Asymptomatic patients presenting for a routine preventive visit have low rates of abnormalities detected on examination, and routine pelvic examinations should be re-considered.

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Conflict of interest statement

Financial Disclosure Isaiah M. Johnson reports he served as a co-investigator on an NIH Phase 2 SBIR with preliminary approval. Eduardo Lara-Torre reports receiving payment from ACOG and Informa editorial. The other authors did not report any potential conflicts of interest.

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