ABSTRACT
Your next patient is a 40-year-old woman. You take a cursory look at her notes and notice that she has seen various colleagues at the surgery about a recurring vaginal discharge. She describes the discharge as grey in colour and having a fi shy odour. A recent vaginal swab confi rmed the presence of clue cells and a diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (BV) was made. Since then, she has had three courses of metronidazole, which have provided only short periods of relief. She is married with three children and lives with her husband, who has been her only sexual contact in the last 20 years. She comes in complaining of the recurrence and wanting ‘a referral to a specialist to fi nd out what is going on’.
