Table 2.

Incidence and risk factors for perineal pain and vaginal pain. *Pain at 12 months after delivery. ^†Pain at 18 months after delivery. ^‡Pain at 8 weeks after delivery. ^¶The risk factors for combined pain of multiple body parts were reported, and the risk factors specific for perineal and vaginal pain were not reported. ^§Both vaginal and Caesarean deliveries were included in the study, but only incidences for vaginal delivery were reported. ^||The incidences for the entire study population were not reported, and only the incidence for each delivery type was reported. ^#Pain at 6 weeks after delivery. **Studies in which evaluated risk factors for vaginal and perineal pain failed to demonstrate statistical significance.

Study	Sample size		Time points after delivery
			6–8 weeks	3 months	4 months	6 months	12–18 months
Glowacka and colleagues15	150	Incidence		27.3%
		Risk factors		Non-genitopelvic pain prior to pregnancy
Woolhouse and colleagues16	1431	Incidence		29.1%		6.4%	2.2%,* 1.8%†
		Risk factors
Paterson and colleagues18	114	Incidence		30.2%
		Risk factors		Previous diagnosis of non-genital chronic pain
Thompson and colleagues22	1193	Incidence	22.1% for 0–8 weeks		6.5% for 9–16 weeks	4.2% for 17–24 weeks
		Risk factors	Primiparity and operative vaginal delivery (vs spontaneous vaginal delivery)		Primiparity and operative vaginal delivery (vs spontaneous vaginal delivery)	Primiparity and operative vaginal delivery (vs spontaneous vaginal delivery)
Eisenach and colleagues20	939	Incidence	1.3%‡
		Risk factors	¶
Glazener and colleagues26	438	Incidence	22% between discharge home and 8 weeks				10% between 2 and 18 months
		Risk factors	Primiparity and operative vaginal delivery (vs spontaneous vaginal delivery)				Primiparity and operative vaginal delivery (vs spontaneous vaginal delivery)
Declercq and colleagues19	1573	Incidence	48% for vaginal delivery‡§			2% for vaginal delivery§
		Risk factors	Mode of delivery and episiotomy			Mode of delivery and primiparity
Klein and colleagues55	697	Incidence		55.7%
		Risk factors		Degree of perineal trauma
Sartore and colleagues54	519	Incidence		4.4%
		Risk factors		Episiotomy
Williams and colleagues52	482	Incidence					Caesarean delivery: 0%; normal vaginal delivery: 30.0%; operative vaginal delivery: 36.4%*||
		Risk factors					Asian race (vs Caucasian) and forceps delivery
Soares and colleagues6	55	Incidence	14.5%‡
		Risk factors	Catastrophising assessed by Pain-Related Self-Statements Scale during admission of delivery, and perineal trauma
Macarthur and Macarthur53	447	Incidence	7.1%#
		Risk factors	Primiparity
Fodstad and colleagues57**	179	Incidence		24.6%
		Risk factors		Episiotomy type (midline vs mediolateral vs lateral vs non-classifiable), episiotomy length, and spontaneous vaginal delivery (vs operative vaginal delivery)
Leeman and colleagues58**	444	Incidence		9.7%
		Risk factors		Degree of perineal trauma
Albers and colleagues59**	5404	Incidence		6.8%
		Risk factors		Degree of perineal trauma