Altered peripheral vascular response of women with and without pelvic pain due to congestion

L C Foong, J. Gamble, I A Sutherland, I. Sutherland, R. W. Beard
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology · 2000 · vol. 107(2) , pp. 157–164 · doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2000.tb11684.x · PMID:10688497 · W2165548874
Other OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 6 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-12 ⓘ

Women with pelvic congestion showed altered peripheral vascular reactivity to head-up tilt, which normalized after ovarian activity suppression.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that women with pelvic venous congestion have a reduction of reactivity of their peripheral circulation. DESIGN: Comparison was made between 20 women with chronic pelvic pain due to congestion and a control group of 15 pain-free women matched for age, parity and body weight. A comparison of these results was made with those from six postmenopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy. METHODS: Study and control groups were investigated during the mid-follicular phase of the menstrual cycle (days 5-9) and the mid-luteal phase (days 19-23). The study group was also investigated during the fifth month of treatment with suppression of ovarian activity with leuprorelin or medroxyprogesterone acetate or six months after hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Head-up tilt sufficient to increase intra-vascular pressure in the toe by a standard 40 mmHg was used as a means of raising venous pressure in the lower limb. Skin capillary red blood cell velocity (flux) was measured using a laser Doppler flow probe placed over the pulp of the big toe. Heart rate and blood pressure were also recorded. The change in skin blood flow following head-up tilt was expressed as a percentage of baseline flow in the supine position. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentage change in skin red blood cell flux, heart rate and blood pressure in response to 40 degrees head-up tilt. RESULTS: In the control group the median response to head-up tilt in the follicular phase was one of a reduction in flux, whereas in the luteal phase it was more variable ranging from an increase to a decrease in flux. The responses in the pelvic congestion group in both the follicular and luteal phases were similar to those of the control group in the luteal phase. A small but significant increase in heart rate in response to tilt in the pelvic pain group, compared with the control group, was interpreted as being due to a fall in venous return. Treatment of the pelvic congestion group by medical suppression of ovarian activity or total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy resulted in a significant change in response to head-up tilt from the variable type of luteal response to one of a more constant reduction in flux, similar to that of the control group in the follicular phase. A reduction in flux was also found consistently in postmenopausal women. CONCLUSION: The study confirms the hypothesis that women with pelvic pain due to congestion show a change in peripheral vascular reactivity which returns to normal after suppression of ovarian activity. It seems likely that some alteration of normal ovarian function is responsible for the observed changes in peripheral blood flow in response to a rise in venous pressure in women with pelvic congestion.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

chronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Pelvic Pain Peripheral Vascular Diseases Blood Flow Velocity Blood Flow Velocity Case-Control Studies Contraceptive Agents, Female Contraceptive Agents, Female Female Fertility Agents, Female Fertility Agents, Female Follicular Phase Head-Down Tilt Heart Rate Heart Rate Humans Leuprolide Leuprolide Luteal Phase Luteal Phase Medroxyprogesterone Acetate

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (29)

Cited by (5)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-05-11T05:55:38.273849+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T20:59:14.592962+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-10-14T06:23:58.021457+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK