{"id":808158,"date":"2026-10-20T02:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808158\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T02:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:30:09","slug":"i-have-a-condition-people-are-too-embarrassed-to-talk-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808158\/","title":{"rendered":"I have a condition people are too embarrassed to talk about"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lifelong inflammatory condition affects genitals and can cause white patches to form with itching, soreness, splitting and tears, says Dr Nighat Arif, a GP specialising in women’s health.<\/p>\n

It affects men and women but is more common in women over 50, external<\/a>. There is also a small risk of vulval cancer., external<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s very sore to have sexual intercourse, to pass urine and it gets mixed up with sexually transmitted diseases but it’s not contagious,” she tells BBC Radio 5 Live podcast That Time of the Month<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Research into the prevalence of vulval lichen sclerosus is limited but analysis by the University of Bristol of people in the West Midlands and Warwickshire estimated it affects about 1% of women. <\/p>\n

Dr Sophie Rees, who helped conduct the research, tells the BBC: “This is almost certainly an underestimate, as we know that there is often a very long delay to diagnosis, and some people probably go their entire lives undiagnosed.<\/p>\n

“There is unfortunately a lot of shame and embarrassment around seeking help for vulval symptoms, as well as a lack of awareness, even amongst healthcare professionals.”<\/p>\n

She adds: “More research is badly needed into true prevalence.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lifelong inflammatory condition affects genitals and can cause white patches to form with itching, soreness, splitting and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}