Dr. Inmaculada Failde, director of the Pain Observatory of Cadiz, participated on July 3 in one of the lectures of the SED Escorial Summer Course entitled “Let’s talk about Chronic Pelvic Pain: it is not a matter of gender”.
This course, which took place between the 3rd and 4th of that month, was attended by various professionals from different health fields (Gynecologists, Urology, Physiotherapy, or Psychology, among others) as well as several pain specialists and members of patient organizations. The event was also attended by patients who suffer from this ailment and who told, in first person, their experience with chronic pelvic pain.
The objectives of this interesting course were:
- To establish a link between health professionals from different specialties that treat chronic pelvic pain, in order to establish care circuits, multidisciplinary, thus promoting an adequate management of this pain condition avoiding iatrogenies derived from an excess of medical tests and interventions.
- Investigate the etiology of pelvic pain disorders and characterize the underlying mechanisms and contributors to pain and examine the relationship between pelvic pain disorders and other diseases or conditions.
- Describe the physical, emotional, interpersonal, interpersonal, economic, and other burdens of pelvic pain.
- Improve standardization of measurement and diagnostic criteria to aid in the assessment and diagnosis of pain disorders, facilitate comparison of clinical trial results, and support evidence-based practice.
- Develop minimally invasive approaches that can help patients with pelvic pain.
- Involve the patient in their recovery with regular physical activity, trying to get a good night’s rest, being active and participating in work and/or leisure activities, relaxation therapies. Rehabilitative physiotherapy.
What is pelvic pain?
Chronic pelvic pain is defined as “chronic or persistent pain of pelvic-related structures in both men and women”. It frequently causes behavioral, cognitive, sexual and emotional impact. It often manifests itself as gynecological, sexual, bowel, or pelvic floor dysfunctions. Therefore its approach must be, in any case, multidisciplinary. Suffering this pain has a direct impact on the quality of life of people suffering from this disease.
Although its origin is uncertain, it is known that it is caused by multiple biological, organic, psychological and environmental conditions that interact in a non-linear way, generating a vulnerability to present it. In fact, it is the cause of frequent visits to multiple specialists by patients, with requests for complementary explorations, which can become iatrogenic where the patient often feels misunderstood and mistreated by the health system.
What is the prevalence of pelvic pain today?
The prevalence of chronic pelvic pain in the epidemiological field is very variable according to recent studies. This reality is probably related to sociocultural aspects. It can range from 6.4% to 25.4% in women according to the latest studies and is lower among men where it is between 2% and 17%.
Pelvic pain in men may be more common than we think. It is estimated that between 8% and 12% of men will suffer from CPPS at some point, so why isn’t this being talked about? It is very likely that in the case of men there is an underestimation of this prevalence in relation to a lower predisposition to consult problems that also affect the sexual sphere.
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