Management of Pelvic Pain, Dyspareunia, and Endometriosis

Pelvic pain is an enigmatic diagnosis which often brings frustrations to both patient and practitioner. Within this chapter an introduction to the changing categorization of pain, a review of pain pathophysiology, and clinical approaches to three presentations of pelvic pain (general pelvic pain, dyspareunia, and endometriosis) are highlighted. Dives into the clinical approach for general pelvic pain, dyspareunia, and endometriosis stress the need for thorough interview, history documentation, and detailed physical exam findings. If these parameters fail to give a clear explanation of the etiology, other techniques may be useful to elicit other common findings associated with pelvic pain, dyspareunia, or endometriosis. Despite the trend toward algorithmic clinical practice for many disease assessments, the diversity of diagnoses related to pelvic pain limits the effectiveness of an algorithmic approach. A focus on the reproductive status of the patient impact may help to guide both diagnosis and therapeutic options.

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Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Editor information Editors and Affiliations Rights and permissions Copyright information © 2017 Springer International Publishing AG About this entry Cite this entry Chen, J.H. (2017). Management of Pelvic Pain, Dyspareunia, and Endometriosis. In: Shoupe, D. (eds) Handbook of Gynecology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17002-2_78-1 Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17002-2_78-1 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