Vulvodynia is a persistent, idiopathic, and multifactorial vulval pain. It presents a challenge to healthcare providers, mainly because it is a complex syndrome that requires interdisciplinary skills, especially in the neurobiological and algological fields, to avoid incorrect pathogenetic interpretations, inaccurate diagnosis and inadequate treatment.

From a neurobiological perspective, vulvodynia is a dysfunctional vulval pain caused by abnormal function of the nervous system itself, not related to a specific vulval disorder responsible for inflammatory pain, or a neural lesion responsible for neuropathic pain.

Provoked vestibulodynia is the most prevalent subtype of vulvodynia, followed by spontaneous generalized vulvodynia. The primary diagnostic goal is to determine whether the woman suffers from vulvodynia as dysfunctional pain opposed to inflammatory or neuropathic pain.

Treatment of vulvodynia requires an individually tailored and multimodal therapeutic approach, that includes counselling, psychological therapy, medical treatment, and physiotherapy. Surgery can be proposed only as a last resort in provoked vestibulodynia.