Pelvic pain

Pelvic pain is one of the most challenging disorders faced by a gynecologist.

Approximately 15% of American women of childbearing age will have chronic pelvic pain. (1)

Chronic pelvic pain is defined as pain below the umbilicus (belly button) which lasts at least 6 months. 

It can be caused by a variety of different disorders and can even be present in the absence of any discernible pathology. 

As I tell my patients, pain is neurologic in origin. It may have originated with some well defined disease process that since has resolved, or that rumbles on. In any case, the approach to pelvic pain is the same as for any other disease. Diagnosis comes before treatment. 

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1. Mathias, S. D., Kuppermann, M., Liberman, R. F., Lipschutz, R. C., & Steege, J. F. (1996). Chronic pelvic pain: Prevalence, health-related quality of life, and economic correlates. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 87, 321–327.