Women's Experience of Living with Vulvodynia Pain: Why They Participated in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Acupuncture.

Introduction: Vulvodynia is vulvar pain lasting at least 3-months without clear identifiable cause that may have other associated factors. The aim, to explore motivations of women participating in a double-blind randomized controlled trial of acupuncture for vulvodynia. Methods: Responses to the question: " Tell me about why you decided to participate in this study " were analyzed using conceptual content analysis to identify patterns in motivation for study participation. Results: Four patterns emerged: 1) desire to address uncontrolled pain , 2) desire for understanding , 3) wish to contribute to knowledge generation , and 4) need to remove cost barriers . Conclusion: Motivations indicate vulvodynia-specific aspects of acceptability of acupuncture. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03364127.