Schrepf A

IntroductionPeak alpha frequency (PAF), an electroencephalography measure, has gained interest due to its association to pain-related neural processes in both healthy and clinical populations. In healthy groups, PAF derived from the sensori…

BackgroundDespite widespread agreement that high-tone pelvic floor dysfunction is highly prevalent among women with pelvic pain, there is no consensus regarding standardized assessment strategy or diagnostic criteria. Furthermore, there are…

IMPORTANCE: Endometriosis is a chronic, estrogen-dependent, inflammatory disease defined by endometrial-like tissue (lesions) outside the uterine lining. It affects up to 10% of women worldwide, and 9 million women in the US, during reprodu…

We evaluated inflammatory markers among 389 surgically confirmed endometriosis cases and 505 controls from the Women's Health Study: From Adolescence to Adulthood (A2A) cohort. Participants reported dysmenorrhea, acyclic pelvic pain, dyspar…

BackgroundChronic primary pain describes conditions where pain is the principal problem rather than a consequence of another disease. Primary pain is thought to be primarily owing to nociplastic pain (i.e. pain as a result of altered nocice…

Background Dyspareunia and restriction of sexual activity are often reported by patients with chronic pelvic pain, but less is known about which conditions or factors contribute most to these symptoms. Methods This is a cross-sectional stud…

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive biomarkers that predict surgical treatment response would inform personalized treatments and provide insight into potential biologic pathways underlying endometriosis-associated pain and symptom progression. OBJECTI…

Exploring the relationship between nociplastic pain and the severity and impact of pelvic pain symptoms could lend insight into the heterogeneous symptom presentation and treatment response that complicates management of chronic pelvic pain…

BACKGROUND: Potential impact on sexual function is an often-cited concern for many patients considering hysterectomy. The existing literature indicates that sexual function remains stable to slightly improved for most patients who undergo h…

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is multifactorial in etiology and heterogeneous in presentation. Identification of all pain contributors is essential for successful management. Chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) are a specified group of …

BackgroundOur aims were to describe characteristics of sexual function prior to and 6months following benign hysterectomy in patients with three common surgical indications, and to identify preoperative factors that influence the magnitude …

We described trends in pelvic pain characteristics over 2 years of follow-up among adolescents and adults with and without endometriosis participating in the longitudinal observational cohort of the Women's Health Study: From Adolescence to…

Chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) are a set of painful chronic conditions characterized by high levels of co-occurrence. It has been hypothesized that COPCs co-occur in many cases because of common neurobiological vulnerabilities.…

Patients with pelvic pain suffer from psychological conditions at a disproportionately high rate compared with their peers. We review environmental, genetic, inflammatory, and neurobiological factors that increase vulnerability to developin…

Until recently, the predominant pathology of chronic pelvic pain conditions was thought to reside in the peripheral tissues. However, mounting evidence from neuroimaging studies suggests an important role of the central nervous system in th…