NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Chronic genital pain may be less common among women than studies have suggested, but the condition has a large impact on these women’s quality of life, new research suggests.In a national survey of US women, researchers found that 10 percent had ever experienced chronic discomfort in the external genital area, symptoms of the condition, which is also called vulvodynia. The figure is lower than past studies have found, but the impact of vulvodynia on women’s lives was significant.

Nearly half said the pain interfered with their sex lives, and even more said the condition hindered their ability to “enjoy life.”

Dr. Lauren D. Arnold and colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Brunswick, report their findings in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

No one knows what causes vulvodynia, a condition that’s diagnosed when other causes of genital pain, such as infection or skin disorders, are ruled out.

For many women, the pain arises with sex, tampon use or exercise that puts pressure on the area, such as bike riding; even tight clothing can trigger discomfort.

In the current study, researchers surveyed 1,012 women who were 18 years of age or older, 100 of whom said they’d ever had symptoms of vulvodynia. Almost four percent had symptoms within the past six months.

Of all women who’d ever had vulvar pain, one quarter said it made them miss work or school at least once in the past year. Forty-five percent said the pain had had a moderate-to-severe” impact on their sex life.

Compared with women without vulvodynia, those with the condition were about six-times more likely to have chronic urinary tract infections, four-times more likely to have repeated yeast infections and three-times more like to report depression.

Other commonly associated conditions were irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia — a syndrome marked by pain at specific points throughout the body.

It’s not clear how vulvodynia may be related to these other conditions. In the case of urinary tract and yeast infections, it’s possible that some women with vulvodynia were misdiagnosed with the infections based on their symptoms, Arnold and her colleagues note.

The findings, they conclude, confirm the “significant disruption of women’s personal lives, including sexual function and overall quality of life, attributable to chronic vulvar pain.”

They also highlight the need for a better understanding of the disorder and how to best treat it.

Various forms of therapy — from diet changes and physical therapy to topical medications and antidepressants <\m> are effective for some women’s symptoms, but there’s not yet a cure for vulvodynia.