The Study of Genital Hygiene Aplications in Women Aged 15-49 Who Applied to the 1st and the 4st State Health Care Centers in Tekirdağ

Objective: This research was planned to evaluate the knowledge and the aplications about the genital hygiene and the necessition for education of the women who applied to the 1st and 4st state health care centers in the province of Tekirda¤.

Material and Methods: This research, which was planned to be descriptional and cross sectional, was held by applying public surveys to 238 voluntary women who are between 15 and 49 years old and who have come to the state health centers between March 2005 and June 2005. In evaluation of data, frequency and percentage of distribution and chi-square test are applied.

Results: The participants applied to the 1st state health care center was 55,9 percent and to the 4st state health care center the 44,1 percent. It is acquired that 34 percent of the participants have been informed by their families and 68,9 percent of them want to get information from the medical staff. It is also acquired that 44,9 percent of the participants use water and toilet papers for cleaning of their genital areas and 44,5 percent of the participants wash their hands before they go to bathroom. According to this research, 58 percent of the participants clean their genital areas starting from the frontal area to backwards but 70,6 percent of them take vaginal douching. We considered a statistifically significant at p<0,005 difference between the genital hygiene applications of women's, who applied to the 1st and 4st health care centers. Women need education for genital hygiene and especially harms of vaginal douching.