• B W Fenton, L Brobeck, E Witten, and V Von Gruenigen.
• Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Summa Health System, Akron, Ohio 44304, USA. fentonb@summahealth.org
• Gynecol. Obstet. Invest. 2012 Jan 1; 74 (1): 64-7.

BackgroundChronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a syndrome composed of one or more pain diagnoses arising from pelvic organs. Although the prevalence of many individual diagnoses has been determined in a variety of settings, the concurrent assessment of overlapping pain syndromes in an outpatient gynecology clinic, which would be most pertinent to practitioners, has not been reported.MethodsPatients waiting to be seen in an outpatient general gynecology clinic completed a survey composed of validated instruments for different pain diagnoses. Cyclic and constant CPP, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), interstitial cystitis (IC), and vulvodynia (VVD) were assessed.ResultsIn the 498 completed surveys, 24% of patients met at least one criterion for CPP, and of these, 23% also met criteria for a second diagnosis. Of all patients, 15% reported symptoms consistent with IBS, 6% with IC, and 5% with VVD. Cyclic CPP was found in 20%, and of these patients, 30% had at least one other CPP-related diagnosis.DiscussionAlthough limited by its design as a survey, this study demonstrates that CPP frequently (between 30 and 43%) occurs with other pain syndromes. Clinicians should be prepared to evaluate nongynecologic causes of pelvic pain.Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

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