The Puzzle of Pelvic Pain
I've fairly recently been invited to join a Facebook group of people suffering from pelvic pain problems. One of my patients invited me to the group, and let me tell you, it's an amazing cadre of women. They lift each other up, give encouragement, and point each other in the right direction for getting a diagnosis etc... I feel kind of like an outsider in there because as much as I'd love for it to be possible, I can't diagnose over the internet. It's really a puzzle figuring out where your pain is coming from, and a hands on exam is absolutely necessary. That's actually the most fun part of my job. I've always loved working puzzles.
Anyhoo, joining this group has helped many women realize they're not alone in the fight against pain. There's a sense of loneliness in pelvic pain patients, feeling like you're the only one out there dealing with this. And it's so not true!
You Are NOT Alone!!
Chronic pelvic pain is a really common issue. The guesses for how many people suffer with this is between 4% and 90% of women worldwide. I can’t even find numbers for men. That’s a pretty wide range, so narrowing down the type of pain to whether it’s with periods only, with sex only, or totally random, we can get a little better idea. With menstrual period pain, it’s around 30-40% of women worldwide. Pain with sex is probably closer to about 20%, although in the US it’s particularly high, at about 45%. Random pain is pretty common too; about 20% of the world’s population has this.
So, if you have pelvic pain, know you’re not alone. Some of the best statistics say that probably 1 in 3 women have pelvic pain, and that it’s chronic in about 1 in 7. Look around you at work sometime. If there’s more than 7 women in your office, guess what? It’s probably not just you!
If you are one of the hundreds of thousands of women world-wide dealing with pelvic pain, I can help. I love doing these kinds of puzzles! You can make an appointment with me at
Nurture Womens Health.
Reference:
Latthe P, Latthe M, Say L, Gülmezoglu M, Kahn K. WHO systematic review of prevalence of chronic pelvic pain: a neglected reproductive health morbidity. BMC Public Health. 2006;6:177.
