Background. Genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) is characterized by a number of pathological changes, in particular urological disorders, vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) and sexual dysfunction. They are commonly accompanied by decreased quality of life (QoL) and often require medical intervention. At the same time, the steps taken to effectively solve this problem are not enough. Thus, it seems relevant to search for rehabilitation methods for VVA patients.Objective: to determine the effectiveness of current rehabilitation methods for VVA patients.Material and methods. The search of publications in international scientific databases PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, search engines and eLibrary revealed 4,330 publications, of them 44 sources were selected for the analysis after the screening procedure according to PRISMA scheme.Results. VVA is based on decreased serum estrogen level and estrogen receptors quantity. Estrogen is a vasoactive hormone that promotes blood supply to the genitals and is involved in maintaining the normal genitourinary microflora. This may occur in women for age-related reasons or as a result of ongoing therapy or radical surgical intervention. At the same time, GSM is often formed, where VVA is one of the key elements. These changes are accompanied by sexual dysfunction, distress and decreased overall QoL in women. It is advisable to carry out complex personalized rehabilitation and QoL monitoring for such patients. The effectiveness of estrogen-containing therapy for topical use as well as adjunctive therapy with non-hormonal lubricants and moisturizing gels or creams was shown for VVA patients.Conclusion. It was determined that VVA symptoms, in general, significantly affect the patients’ QoL, regardless of age. The necessity of developing specialized rehabilitation programs conducted by specialists of various profiles was noted. The effectiveness of these programs will be higher with timely diagnosis, which also requires significant attention.
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