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Health

Pelvic pain

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Pain always causes discomfort to a person, but in this way it signals that it is worth paying attention to the state of your health. Pelvic pain is no exception. Sooner or later, we can all feel pain in the pelvic area and go to the doctor with such complaints. It is not without reason that doctors around the world believe that such a symptom as pelvic pain must be thoroughly examined, as it can indicate the presence of various diseases. At the same time, this symptom is also extremely difficult to base the diagnosis of a patient on. But, do not immediately panic and at the first appearance of painful sensations in the pelvic area immediately think about the worst outcome. As they say, armed means protected. This material will help you arm yourself with all the necessary basic knowledge about pelvic pain, thanks to which you can determine for yourself how urgently you need to see a doctor.

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Women are more likely to experience pelvic pain

Pelvic pain can appear completely unexpectedly. However, bruises and injuries to the pelvic area in most cases become the main cause of such pain. In addition, pelvic pain can also signal inflammatory processes in the joints and tendons. That is why pelvic pain seems such a mysterious symptom to doctors, because it can indicate the presence of completely different diseases.

Nowadays, more and more women are being diagnosed with chronic pelvic pain syndrome. How can you tell if it is? If the pain is constantly present for 6 months or longer, the pain is of a different nature, but it is not related to the menstrual cycle, the pain is localized in the lower back, below the navel along the abdominal wall, or simply spreads throughout the pelvis - this means that there are good reasons to suspect chronic pelvic pain syndrome. There are a number of reasons why women develop this syndrome:

  1. Urology: urethral diverticulum, bladder cancer, acute and chronic cystitis, bladder diverticulum, urethral syndrome, urethriocele, urolithiasis, chronic inflammatory processes in the paraurethral glands, urinary tract infections, which affect men along with women, but they rarely experience pelvic pain.
  2. Gynecology: endometriosis, processes influencing the formation of adhesions, chronic inflammatory diseases of the pelvic organs, endosalpingiosis, neoplasms of varying complexity (ovarian cysts, parovarian cysts, fibroids, myomas, lymphoid cysts after operations), cancers in the pelvic organs, painful ovulation, dysmenorrhea, the so-called "remnant ovary syndrome" (it may appear after the uterus and ovaries have been removed due to surgical intervention), accessory ovary, impaired blood outflow in case of a malformation during menstruation, varicose veins in the pelvic area, cervical stenosis, endometrial or cervical polyp, prolapsed or falling internal genital organs, placement of an intrauterine contraceptive or foreign body in the pelvis.
  3. Gastroenterology: chronic intestinal obstruction, colon cancer, constipation, colitis, hernia, diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome (if a person has bowel disorders such as diarrhea or constipation and at the same time there is bloating, this syndrome is diagnosed).
  4. Problems with tendons or muscles in the pelvic area: fibromyalgia and myofascial syndrome (pain in the anterior abdominal wall and other pelvic muscles is usually referred to by this term) accompanied by additional tension or spasm of the pelvic muscles, abscess of the iliopsoas muscle, muscle strain or hematoma in the lower abdomen, femoral or ventral hernia.
  5. Bone pathologies: sarcoma of the iliac bone, osteomyelitis, pathology of the hip joint, vertebral syndrome (it can also be considered in the context of neurological abnormalities), which can develop as a result of various spinal injuries, neoplasms in the spinal cord or sacral nerves, herniated discs, osteochondrosis of the lumbosacral spine.
  6. Neurological pathologies: coccygodynia, or in other words, chronic coccygeal pain syndrome, neuralgia of various origins, tunnel neuropathy and traumatic tunnel pudendopathy, which arose as a result of surgical manipulations (this disease is characterized by the retraction of cutaneous nerves into the postoperative scar).

Unfortunately, every day, more and more women who have given birth and young girls can hear from their doctors such a diagnosis as endometriosis. In medical terminology, there is also another name for this disease - adenomyosis. In the case when in the body of a woman, namely outside the uterine cavity, there is a proliferation of tissue, in its structure absolutely the same as the endometrium, then during the menstrual cycles, exactly the same changes occur with it as with the endometrium. The presence of such a disease leads to the fact that a woman feels severe pain during sexual intercourse, and monthly menstruation becomes very painful. Endometriosis can provoke chronic pain in the pelvic area.

If you suspect that you may be pregnant recently and you feel pelvic pain, you should not hesitate and immediately go to see a gynecologist. The fact is that such pains can accompany a completely normal pregnancy in some cases. But, unfortunately, quite often they indicate that the pregnancy is ectopic (or, as it is also called, tubal). If you have already been pregnant for a longer period and have not previously noticed painful manifestations in the pelvis, this may signal a threat of premature termination of pregnancy. Timely visit to a doctor and, if necessary, treatment in a hospital setting ("support") can effectively remove such a threat and help carry the child to the required time for normal delivery.

In cases where a person is in a state of depression or is prone to stress, the psychosomatic nature of pelvic pain is also sometimes noted.

Men also have pelvic pain.

Many men are also diagnosed with chronic pelvic pain syndrome. In more than 90% of cases, it is associated with the presence of such a disease as prostatitis. It can be of two types: inflammatory and abacterial. The pain syndrome itself is not treated in this case. Only in combination with prostatitis can a man be relieved of chronic pelvic pain.

If pelvic pain becomes your constant companion and brings a lot of unpleasant sensations, then there is no point in waiting for it to go away on its own. Men should seek advice from a urologist. Women should begin diagnostics by visiting a gynecologist. In addition to these doctors, a gastroenterologist may be needed. If you have previously had any pelvic trauma, then visit the emergency room or consult a traumatologist at the nearest clinic. Well, if all the above doctors do not see the reasons for the pelvic pain, then it makes sense to contact a psychiatrist or neurologist.

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