Management of Pelvic Pain

In: Handbook of Gynecology · 2022 · pp. 1–18 · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17002-2_86-2 · W4312478592
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AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06+body, 2026-06-23

Pelvic pain in women, originating from various gynecologic, urologic, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, neurologic, or vascular causes, requires careful history, physical exam, and diagnostic studies to differentiate acute from chronic pain and determine effective management.

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The paper reviews the management of pelvic pain, emphasizing that it has diverse causes across gynecologic and non-gynecologic systems and that clinicians must distinguish acute from chronic pain while recognizing overlapping etiologies. It outlines that urgent identification or exclusion of critical life-threatening causes of acute pelvic pain is important, and that after careful history and physical examination, appropriate laboratory and diagnostic studies help narrow the differential and improve the likelihood of effective symptom management. A major limitation is that, as a handbook-style overview, it does not provide new primary data or specific comparative effectiveness results for each etiology. Relevance to endometriosis: the paper lists endometriosis among many potential causes of pelvic pain and includes it in the broader differential and management framework, though the article’s main focus is general pelvic pain diagnosis and management rather than endometriosis alone.

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Abstract

Pelvic pain in women is a diverse condition, with a wide variety of etiologies both related and unrelated to the female reproductive organs. In addition to pain of gynecologic origin, there may be urologic, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, neurologic, and vascular origins to pelvic pain. Etiologies range from infection, inflammation, menstruation, pregnancy, neoplasm, adnexal torsion, alterations of anatomy, adhesive disease, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, kidney stones, irritable bowel syndrome, painful bladder syndrome, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic congestion, to vascular abnormalities. Pelvic pain is divided into acute and chronic pain, and while there can be significant overlap in etiologies, it is important to quickly rule out or identify critical or life-threating causes of acute pelvic pain. As management of pelvic pain varies significantly by etiology, a careful history and physical exam followed by appropriate laboratory and diagnostic studies is crucial to narrow the differential diagnosis and improve likelihood of effective symptom management. Similar content being viewed by others

References

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Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Editor information Editors and Affiliations Rights and permissions Copyright information © 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG About this entry Cite this entry Cox, K., Shoupe, D., Reinert, A. (2022). Management of Pelvic Pain. In: Shoupe, D. (eds) Handbook of Gynecology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17002-2_86-2 Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17002-2_86-2 Received: Accepted: Published: Publisher Name: Springer, Cham Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17002-2 Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17002-2 eBook Packages: Living Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

Keywords

- Acute pelvic pain - Chronic pelvic pain - Pelvic pain - Recurrent pelvic pain - Endometriosis - Adenomyosis - Myofascial pain syndrome - Dysmenorrhea - Adnexal pain - Trigger points - Leiomyomata - Glial cells - Central sensitization - Complex pelvic pain syndromes - Viscero-somatic convergence - Viscero-visceral convergence - Irritable bowel syndrome - Pelvic floor dysfunction - Abdominal wall pain - Neuropathic pain - Vulvodynia - Painful bladder syndrome

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