Rationale: Internal vaginal douching is a common practice among women all over the world specially those in the Middle East and is used for personal hygiene or aesthetic reasons in many countries. The current study aims to investigate the prevalence of this practice in Assiut, Egypt. It also investigated why, and how do women practice internal vaginal douching and the impact of this habit on reproductive health outcome.
Methods: A cross sectional observational study conducted in a university hospital in Assiut Egypt. An interview administered questionnaire prepared by the investigators and administered to 620 women by trained clinic nurse. The primary outcome was the percentage of women who gave a history of preterm labor in women performing internal vaginal douching or not. Other outcomes were the types of vaginal infections and other reproductive implications in the ladies performing internal vaginal douching compared with those just using external hygiene.
Results: Our participants were predominantly multipara from semi-urban background and middle socioeconomic level. Considering vaginal douching as a religious duty and a kind of personal cleanliness were the most common reasons for women to use internal vaginal douching in 88.9% and 80.6% of the study sample respectively. The incidence of preterm labor (19.2% Vs 11.9% (p=0.048) and PID (13.2% 6.0% p=0.008) were significantly higher in women performing douching compared to those not performing this habit. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups as regard the history of ectopic pregnancy or the mean number of previous abortions.
Conclusion: Internal vaginal douching is a prevalent practice in Egypt and has traditional and religious rotes within the community. There are many misbelieves around this habit in Egypt. Internal vaginal douching dose increase the reproductive health hazards especially preterm labor, ectopic pregnancy and pelvic inflammatory disease. Much effort and awareness companies are needed to increase women awareness about health hazards of this incorrect practice and limit its use.