Summary of Clinical and Demographic Information from New Somerset Hospital Chronic Pelvic Pain Clinic January 2015-January 2019

This is the data from Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Women with Chronic Pelvic Pain at a South African Tertiary Referral Clinic (2026). It is a retrospective descriptive study making up my thesis for Masters of Medicine (UCT). Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a frequently encountered condition with significant physical and mental health impacts, yet there is a paucity of data in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in Africa. This research describes the demographic and clinical characteristics of women at a South African tertiary referral clinic to better understand local population needs. To describe the cohort of patients according to demographic and clinical characteristics. To review the following hypotheses: patients in this group with endometriosis undergo a larger number of surgeries; there is a high incidence of nongynaecological and dual pathology and with experienced specialist evaluation, the incidence of unclear diagnoses will be low. A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using a database of 116 women who attended the CPP clinic at New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town between January 2015 and January 2019. Data regarding demographics, surgical history, diagnostic findings, and management strategies were extracted from patient folders. The study also evaluated the utilisation of multidisciplinary team (MDT) care and patient outcomes. The cohort had a mean age of 38 years and a high mean pain score of 7.1. A staggering surgical burden was identified: 92.2% of participants had undergone previous abdominal surgery, and 95.7% had more than one laparoscopy. Notably, patients with endometriosis experienced the highest rates of repeat intervention, accounting for 31.5% of the group with multiple laparoscopies. Dual pathology was identified in 19.9% of the cohort. The most common laparoscopic findings were negative laparoscopy (34.8%), endometriosis (31.2%), and adhesions (22.3%). Despite the complexity of these cases, thorough evaluation resulted in an unclear diagnosis rate of only 6.0%. Regarding clinical outcomes, 26.7% of participants were lost to follow-up, 37.1% were down-referred, and 36.2% maintained ongoing follow-up at the study’s conclusion. CPP in this South African setting is a high-burden condition characterised by significant surgical history and multifactorial aetiologies. The distribution of primary diagnoses closely mirrors diagnostic patterns seen in high-income countries and other LMICs. The findings validate that while pathology is complex, a specialised clinical work-up can lead to a definitive diagnosis in the vast majority of cases. However, the utilisation rates of multidisciplinary care and the significant proportion of loss to follow-up highlight ongoing challenges in care. These results emphasise the value of specialised clinics in managing complex patients and the need for formalised, integrated care pathways to improve long-term outcomes in resource-constrained environments. The data is in SPSS format with all metadata included in the file. Ethics approval obtained