Non-pharmacological therapies for treating chronic pelvic pain in women: A review

Xinlu Wang, Ning Ding, Yuanjie Sun, Yu Chen, Hangyu Shi, Li Zhu, Lili Zhu, Shuai Gao, Zhishun Liu
In: Medicine · 2022 · vol. 101(49) , pp. e31932 · doi:10.1097/md.0000000000031932 · PMID:36626494 · PMC9750590 · W4315436521
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 5 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This review of non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pelvic pain in women identified pelvic floor physical therapy, psychotherapy, acupuncture, neuromodulation, and dietary therapy as common treatments with high safety and few side effects, supporting their inclusion in initial treatment plans.

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Abstract

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is an intricate condition with multiple etiologies that lead to indefinite pain mechanisms. Physicians and researchers are challenged in its treatment, and the combined therapy of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment has been recognized as a multidisciplinary approach cited by guidelines and adopted in clinical practice. As an alternative therapy for CPP, non-pharmacologic therapies benefit patients and deserve further study. This study reviews the literature published from January 1991 to April 2022 on non-pharmacologic therapies for CPP in adult women. Based on a survey, this review found that the most commonly used non-pharmacological therapies for CPP include pelvic floor physical therapy, psychotherapy, acupuncture, neuromodulation, and dietary therapy. By evaluating the efficacy and safety of each therapy, this study concluded that non-pharmacological therapies should be included in the initial treatment plan because of their high degree of safety and low rate of side effects. To fill the lack of data on non-pharmacologic therapies for CPP, this study provides evidence that may guide treatment and pain management.

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chronic_pelvic_pain

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