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Table
3: Alteration of vaginal discharge according to IUD use
and relation of the vaginal discharge score to culture results
| Item |
Vaginal
discharge score* |
Total |
P
value |
| IUD use |
|
0* |
0.5* |
0.75* |
1.0* |
|
|
| Non-users |
No. |
23 |
12 |
18 |
13 |
66 |
0.198 |
| % |
34.8 |
18.2 |
27.3 |
19.7 |
100 |
|
| IUD
users |
No. |
18 |
30 |
39 |
47 |
134 |
0.003 |
| % |
13.4 |
22.4 |
29.1 |
35.1 |
100 |
|
| Total |
No. |
41 |
42 |
57 |
60 |
200 |
0.003 |
| % |
20.5 |
21 |
28.5 |
30 |
100 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| culture
results |
Vaginal
discharge score* |
Total |
P
value |
| |
|
0 |
0.5 |
0.75 |
1.0 |
|
|
| No
growth |
No. |
20 |
15 |
13 |
24 |
72 |
0.000 |
| % |
27.8 |
20.8 |
18.1 |
33.3 |
100 |
|
| Pathogenic |
No. |
7 |
16 |
18 |
18 |
59 |
0.000 |
| % |
11.9 |
27.1 |
30.5 |
30.5 |
100 |
|
| Predominant |
No. |
14 |
11 |
26 |
18 |
69 |
0.000 |
| % |
20.3 |
15.9 |
37.7 |
26.1 |
100 |
|
| Total |
No. |
41 |
42 |
57 |
60 |
200 |
** |
| % |
20.5 |
21 |
28.5 |
30 |
100 |
|
*Score
of vaginal discharge given according to presence of 1-4 symptoms
**
P value=0.54 when comparing vaginal discharge scores with presence or
absence of bacterial growth, and =0.266 when comparing vaginal discharge
score with type of bacterial growth
|
|
Severity
of RTI related symptoms and IUD use, duration, and type of IUD:
Table 4 shows that more than two third of IUD users have moderate
and severe symptoms, where majority of non-IUD users had mild or no
symptoms. There was statistically significant relationship between the
presence and severity of symptoms and IUD use (P=0.001), but
no significant relationship with type of IUD (P=0.568). Regarding
the duration of IUD use, there was tendency to have milder symptoms
with longer IUD use (P=0.000) except for the first year of use
when there was no significant difference between the duration and severity
of symptoms (P=0.572).
Discussion
According
to the Palestinian statistical bureau survey, it was found that
IUD is the most popular method among other contraceptive methods;
the overall ever use rate was (38.2%),and
current use is 47.6% . At the same time most of users start to use IUD
after having the 3rd child 12 . In
our study (Table 1) more than half of the study population of IUD users
(52.2%) was in the age group of 20-30 years, just 0.8 % was below 20
years old. This reflects
the national policy of the FP program in the MOH, which does not prefer
to apply the IUD to young age, or to nulli-para women. And also goes
along with the Palestinian statistical bureau 2000, which states that
the percent of women who are currently using IUD at the age below than
20 is 3.7 % 12 .
Table 2 shows that the presence of vaginal discharge was the most
frequent complaint among women in our study, particularly IUD users.
Similar findings were reported by Hawkes,
who described
vaginal discharges as one of the most common clinical complaint among
women of reproductive age in many parts of the world 13.
 
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