Psychological and endocrine correlates of chronic pelvic pain associated with adhesions

Christine Heim, U. Ehlert, J. P. Hanker, Dirk H. Hellhammer
In: Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology · 1999 · vol. 20(1) , pp. 11–20 · doi:10.3109/01674829909075572 · PMID:10212883 · W2123850978
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 9 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Patients with chronic pelvic pain and adhesions reported more major life events and showed blunted cortisol responses to CRF stimulation compared to pain-free controls.

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

Abstract

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a frequent and often unexplained gynecological complaint. We attempted to evaluate stress history, psychological features and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function in a group of patients suffering from CPP associated with pelvic adhesions. We recruited 10 patients with CPP and adhesions and 14 painfree, infertile control patients who underwent gynecological examination and diagnostic laparoscopy in a general hospital. Psychological assessment included structured interviews on sexual and physical abuse experiences and major life events as well as questionnaires on pain characteristics and depression. To evaluate HPA axis function, we measured plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and salivary cortisol responses to the administration of 100 micrograms human corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). Results revealed high, but not statistically increased, prevalence rates of sexual and physical abuse for patients with CPP and adhesions as compared to controls. Patients with CPP and adhesions reported a significantly higher total number of major life events. Mean depression scores were normal in both groups. Patients with CPP and adhesions demonstrated normal plasma ACTH, but decreased salivary cortisol levels in the CRF stimulation test. These preliminary findings suggest that stress and neuroendocrine changes may also contribute to the pathophysiology of CPP with an identified organic correlate.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

chronic_pelvic_pain

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 (45)

Cited by (9)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK