Preference of Women With Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection for Vaginal Estradiol Tablet vs Cream

December 1, 2025 updated by: Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Addressing Preference as a Patient-centered Outcome to Prevent Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection (rUTI) in Post-menopausal Women: a Cross-over Randomized Controlled Trial

Vaginally applied estrogen has been shown to decrease the incidence of Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection (rUTI) in post-menopausal women. However, prior studies have shown the compliance rate for topical estrogen cream is low. The vaginal estradiol tablet has been shown to be preferred by patients being treated for genitourinary syndrome of menopause and has improved compliance. There are no studies looking at the preference of post-menopausal women with rUTI for vaginal estradiol tablet as an alternative to vaginal estradiol cream.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

This study is a cross-over randomized study to assess preference. Participants will be in the study for 6 months, they will use vaginal estradiol cream for 3 months and vaginal estradiol tablet for 3 months. Patients who meet diagnostic criteria for rUTI will be recruited. Group A participants will start with 3 months of cream and then switch to tablets. Group B will start with 3 months of tablets and switch to cream. In addition, participants may be started on other supplemental medications (Cranberry, D-mannose, methenamine) at the discretion of their provider. Patients will get monthly phone calls to assess for side effects, safety concerns, and symptoms of UTI.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
21

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, 27157
        • Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

20 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women age 20-80 who are post-menopausal or have undergone surgical menopause. Post-menopausal defined as amenorrhea for ≥ 1 year, or surgical menopause through bilateral oophorectomy, or menopausal symptoms for ≥ 1 year in women with prior hysterectomy
  • New or previous diagnosis of recurrent Urinary Tract Infections (rUTI) (3 or more UTIs in the past year or 2 or more UTIs in the last 6 months) Must have at least one culture documented UTI, the remaining can be documented by urinalysis showing nitrites and leukocyte esterase.
  • Not currently taking daily prophylactic antibiotics
  • Willing to use vaginal estrogen for prevention of recurrent UTIs

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Interstitial cystitis or bladder pain syndrome, nephrolithiasis, genitourinary abnormalities, fistula, history of renal transplant or anatomic abnormality of the kidney
  • Fecal incontinence, intermittent catheterization or indwelling catheter, poorly controlled DM, urothelial cancer, estrogen-sensitive cancer including active breast cancer
  • Recent urologic surgery within 3 months
  • Inability to retain vaginal tablet (ex due to advanced prolapse, history of colpocleisis)
  • Other medical reasons that are deemed incompatible with vaginal estrogen treatment
  • Use of vaginal estrogen in the past 1 month- patients can be recruited after a 1 month wash-out period
  • Inability to follow up at clinic study site to give sample, for example due to transportation issues
  • Organ transplant patients
  • Patients on systemic hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Active Comparator: cream used first and then switch to tablets
participants will start with 3 months of cream and then switch to tablets
Drug: Estradiol vaginal cream
Participants will use vaginal estradiol cream for 3 months
Drug: Estradiol Vaginal Tablet
Participants will use vaginal estradiol tablet for 3 months
Active Comparator: tablets used first and switch to cream
participants will start with 3 months of tablets and switch to cream
Drug: Estradiol vaginal cream
Participants will use vaginal estradiol cream for 3 months
Drug: Estradiol Vaginal Tablet
Participants will use vaginal estradiol tablet for 3 months

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient preference rate for vaginal estradiol cream versus tablet
Time Frame: month 6
Preference will be assess at 6 months or at the time of withdrawal, by asking participants: "Which route of vaginal estrogen do you prefer: Vaginal estradiol tablet or vaginal estradiol cream?"
month 6

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in vaginal and urinary microbiome Lactobacillus amount with the use of vaginal estradiol tablet versus cream
Time Frame: Baseline, Month 3, and Month 6
Vaginal culture swab and urine culture specimens will be collected - The specimens will be sent for species-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Lactobacillus
Baseline, Month 3, and Month 6
Change in overall satisfaction, convenience, side effects, and effectiveness of vaginal estradiol cream vs tablet using Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM)
Time Frame: Month 3 and Month 6
Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM) - The TSQM domain scores range from 0 to 100 with higher scores representing higher satisfaction on that domain. A questionnaire assessing adherence and the reasons for not taking drug at the recommended frequency of administration.
Month 3 and Month 6
Changes in adherence scores
Time Frame: Month 3 and Month 6
Adherence will be assessed by the medication adherence questionnaire (MAQ) - The MAQ will be used to determine medication adherence. This questionnaire asks respondents about past experience in taking medications. The responses are 'yes' or 'no' and are scored as yes=1 and no=0. Scores will be summed: high adherence = score of 0 points; medium adherence = score of 1-2 points, and low adherence = score of 3-4 points. Means and standard deviations will be compared within and between groups.
Month 3 and Month 6

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Candace Parker-Autry, MD, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
January 12, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
January 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
January 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
February 1, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 1, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
February 10, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
December 2, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
December 1, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • IRB00092892

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

No data will be shared with other researchers

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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