Chronic pelvic pain in women

Jane Daniels, Khalid S. Khan
In: BMJ · 2010 · vol. 341(oct05 2) , pp. c4834 · doi:10.1136/bmj.c4834 · PMID:20923840 · W1966613269
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 70 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Chronic pelvic pain affects 2.1-24% of women globally, presents commonly in UK primary care, and is challenging to diagnose and treat due to associated conditions and psychosocial factors.

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Abstract

#### Summary points Chronic pelvic pain in women is a debilitating condition that impairs quality of life. Studies using various definitions estimated that its prevalence ranges from 2.1% to 24% of the female population worldwide.1 It is a common presentation in UK primary care, with 38 per 1000 women affected annually—a rate comparable to those of asthma (37 per 1000) and back pain (41 per 1000).2 Because pelvic pain is associated with conditions such as endometriosis and interstitial cystitis, a diagnosis is often difficult to establish, leading to a delay in appropriate treatment. Social and psychological factors are strongly associated with chronic pelvic pain, so tailored, effective treatment can be challenging to provide. #### Sources and selection criteria We searched EMBASE and Medline for articles with titles that included the keywords “chronic pelvic pain” with the limits “meta-analysis, review and randomised controlled trial”. We restricted the search to articles published in English in the past five years. We identified all systematic reviews and trial citations in the Cochrane Library under the MeSH terms pelvic pain and dysmenorrhoea. Articles of interest cited in these papers were identified. Finally we reviewed published clinical guidelines from international pain associations and gynaecological societies and searched the National Guidelines Clearing House. Chronic …

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Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheainterstitial_cystitis

Citation neighborhood

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. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (23)

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