The intention of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to
improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of vulvodynia. By definition,
vulvar discomfort or pain without a clear etiology is termed vulvodynia. Some
organizations use the term vulvodynia to indicate vulvar pain of unknown
etiology for more than 3 months. For the purposes of this announcement,
vulvodynia and vulvar pain will be used interchangeably. The overall incidence
of vulvodynia has been reported as 4.2 cases per 100 person-years in one
population based study, with others estimating that persistent vulvar pain
affects 9 to 18 percent of women at some point during their lifetime. Current
evidence suggests that incidence rates vary by age, ethnicity and marital
status.