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Early detection of pathological vaginal discharge is important to prevent complications of underlying
diseases which can severely compromise women’s health, fertility and survival. A review of the
published literature was performed to describe health seeking behaviours and cultural practices related
to vaginal discharge among women in reproductive age group. This review involved searching
databases using the search terms such as vaginal symptoms/ discharge, reproductive disorders, health
seeking, self-management. Twenty six original articles which included in to the study were regarding
Key words:
Vaginal Discharge, Health seeking
behaviours, Cultural practices,
Self-treatments.
reproductive tract infections involving women aged 15 to 49 years and published in English between
1990 and 2014. The most commonly reported reproductive tract symptom was vaginal discharge.
Majority of women consider stress, body weakness, poor personal hygiene, body heat, eating hot
foods and bad luck as causes for vaginal discharge. Women’s lack of knowledge regarding the causes
leads to inability in differentiating normality of vaginal discharge. Many women expressed that
embarrassment, anxiety and shame related to disclosing vaginal discharge leads to use of variety of
home remedies. Women’s lack of knowledge on the pathological vaginal discharge and use of
different cultural practices make them delay in seeking medical advice for pathological vaginal
discharge. Culture specific health education programmes and strategies need to be designed to provide
effective health care towards prevention of consequences of untreated pathological vaginal discharge.
