Reduced pain thresholds and signs of sensitization in women with persistent pelvic pain and suspected endometriosis

Hanna Grundström, Björn Gerdle, Siw Alehagen, Carina Berterö, Lars Arendt-Nielsen, Lars Arendt‐Nielsen, Preben Kjølhede
Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2018 · vol. 98(3) , pp. 327–336 · doi:10.1111/aogs.13508 · PMID:30472739 · W2900796047
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 53 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Women with persistent pelvic pain exhibit reduced pain thresholds indicative of central sensitization, which worsens with longer pain duration and correlates with quality of life and depression symptoms.

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

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Endometriosis is a gynecological disorder that may cause considerable pelvic pain in women of fertile age. Determining pain mechanisms is necessary in order to optimize the treatment of the disease. The objective of the study was to evaluate pain thresholds in women with persistent pelvic pain with and without confirmed endometriosis, and healthy, unaffected controls, and analyze how pain thresholds in these cohorts related to duration of pelvic pain, quality of life, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Pain thresholds for heat, cold and pressure were assessed with quantitative sensory testing on six locations on a reference group of 55 healthy women and on 37 women with persistent pelvic pain who had been admitted for diagnostic laparoscopy on the suspicion of endometriosis. Validated instruments were applied to assess quality of life and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Data were analyzed by means of uni- and multivariate analysis of variance and Spearman's rank-order correlation. RESULTS: The women with persistent pelvic pain had significantly lower pain thresholds compared with the reference women. In the women with pain, no differences were observed in pain thresholds between women with (n = 13) and women without (n = 24) biopsy-proven endometriosis. The duration of pelvic pain correlated significantly positively with reduced pain thresholds, ie, the longer the duration, the more sensitization. In the persistent pelvic pain group, pain thresholds for heat correlated significantly with the Short Form Health Survey 36 dimension of bodily pain, and thresholds for cold correlated with Short Form Health Survey 36 bodily pain and with symptoms of depression. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed widespread alterations in pain thresholds in women with persistent pelvic pain that are indicative of central sensitization and a time-dependent correlation. Women with pelvic pain and suspicion of endometriosis should probably be treated more thoroughly to prevent or at least minimize the concomitant development of central sensitization.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Pain Threshold Pelvic Pain Quality of Life Adult Anxiety Anxiety Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Middle Aged Pain Measurement Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Quality of Life Severity of Illness Index

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 (27)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:19:25.021412+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK