Pelvic Pain

Most  women experience pelvic pain at some time during their lives.  Many times pelvic pain is just the normal functioning of the reproductive or other organs.  Other times pelvic pain may indicate a serious problem that needs urgent treatment.  Here we look at the causes of pelvic pain, and how the cause of pelvic pain is determined. 

Causes of Pelvic Pain

Many organs live in the pelvis, including the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes.   The bladder and intestine, and appendix also live next to the reproductive organs, and sensations from these organs can feel like pain from the uterus or ovaries.  To further confuse things, pain from the kidney and pain from muscles and from the abdominal wall can also seem to come from the pelvis. 

I find it most helpful in explaining pain to my patients to explain my approach to finding the cause of their pelvic pain, rather than just to give a "diagnosis."   I'll go into more detail after I explain my "Categories of Pelvic Pain.   From my standpoint, pelvic pain falls into three classifications:  

	Pelvic pain that indicates a serious problem and that needs urgent surgery or hospitalization.  Examples of this type of pelvic pain would be a ruptured tubal pregnancy or appendicitis.
	Pelvic pain that indicates a problem that may need treatment, but not on an urgent basis.   Examples of this would include pain from endometriosis, or a growing fibroid tumor.   Chronic pelvic pain also falls into this category.
	Pelvic pain that is caused something that is part of the normal functioning of the reproductive organs, and will probably resolve without treatment.  This pain can be severe, but is self-limited.  A frequent cause of this is a "functional" ovarian cyst.  (More about that later.)  It is easy for a doctor to fall into the trap of doing surgery for such problems because the patient wants the problem solved, and feels that surgery will offer a quick "fix."

Pelvic Pain Emergencies
Pain Needing Treatment
Annoying Pain
Pelvic Pain Diagnosis