Our research showed that the mechanisms causing chronic pelvic pain vary from person to person.
THE CONVERSATION
Chronic pelvic pain affects between 5% and 26% of women worldwide. It can be associated with conditions such as endometriosis (where tissue resembling the lining of the womb is found outside the womb) and interstitial cystitis (bladder pain syndrome). Some women also have chronic pelvic pain without a specific cause.
Despite how many women are affected by chronic pelvic pain, we still don’t fully understand the mechanisms underlying it. This has meant that women suffering from chronic pelvic pain have limited treatment options.
There are many reasons why the mechanisms causing chronic pelvic pain remain unknown. One of these is that there’s huge variation in the intensity and type of pain experienced – even in cases where the chronic pain is caused by a specific disease.
For example, some women with endometriosis experience no pelvic pain, others experience severe pain every day and others experience everything in between. The pain experienced also doesn’t correlate with what endometriosis looks like in the body.
This article is part of Women’s Health Matters, a series about the health and wellbeing of women and girls around the world. From menopause to miscarriage, pleasure to pain the articles in this series will delve into the full spectrum of women’s health issues to provide valuable information, insights and resources for women of all ages.
There are also many different types of pain experienced with chronic pelvic pain – including pain while menstruating, pain during sex and pain when urinating or having a bowel movement. People with chronic pelvic pain may experience any of these and in any combination.
We know from other chronic pain conditions (such as fibromyalgia and diabetic neuropathy) that different mechanisms cause pain depending on the person – and that each of these different mechanisms respond differently to treatments.
Research we conducted earlier this year has now shown that chronic pelvic pain operates similarly. Our research showed that the mechanisms that cause chronic pelvic pain seem to vary from person to person.
Mechanisms of pain
We conducted our study on 85 women – 59 of whom had chronic pelvic pain. Of those with chronic pelvic pain, 25 had endometriosis, 13 had bladder pain syndrome, 15 had both endometriosis and bladder pain syndrome and six had pain with no specific cause. Participants were from the UK, US and Portugal and were aged between 18 and 50.
To understand whether the mechanism causing pelvic pain differed depending on the person, we carried out a series of sensory tests. This involved exposing the participants to various sensations – such as vibration, touch, pressure and temperature.
