Vaginitis is a condition that often goes unaddressed by women and their health care providers due to many people often feeling embarrassed about it. Vaginitis is also frequently misdiagnosed as a urinary tract infection, which can leave a woman unaware of lifestyle factors that are chronic, recurrent causes of vaginitis.

What exactly is vaginitis? By definition, it is an inflammatory condition of the mucosal lining of the vagina. A urinary tract infection, on the other hand, is an infection found in any part of the genitourinary (GU) system; the kidneys, the ureters, the bladder, and the urethra are the four major regions of the GU system where a urinary tract infection can take place.

For diagnostic and treatment purposes, vaginitis is typically classified into one of the following three categories:

1. Infectious Vaginitis – represents approximately 90 percent of all cases of vaginitis in women who are of reproductive age. Infectious vaginitis is typically caused by bacterial overgrowth, yeast overgrowth, an infection by a protozoan called Trichimonas vaginalis, or various sexually transmitted organisms.

2. Irritant Vaginitis – caused by allergic-type reactions to condoms, spermicides, topical medications, tampons, soaps, perfumes, douches, or semen.

3. Hormonal Vaginitis – most often occurs in postpartum or postmenopausal women in the form of atrophic (thinning) vaginitis. Hormonal vaginitis can also occur in prepubescent girls due to endocrine system imbalance.