Living with chronic pelvic pain

As a woman growing up, you are taught all things reproductive system, all things woman's anatomy, but there's one thing you are not prepared for: the possibility of experiencing debilitating pelvic pain associated with it.

Talk to women experiencing such pain, the sort of pain that requires lots of pharmaceuticals, hot water bottles and possibly countless trips to A&E, and they will tell you that they were told, 'this pain is normal, it's just really bad period pain'. For many, there are more sinister reasons.

In the field of psychology and mental health, we are in a prime position to implement real change.

38 per 1000 women (Zondervan et al., 1999) are said to be experiencing chronic pelvic pain on a yearly basis. Research from the field of psychology suggests a multidisciplinary approach when dealing with chronic pelvic pain, where patients should have access to mental health provisions (Bryant et al., 2016; Twiddy et al., 2015; Miller-Matero et al., 2016) whilst receiving investigative procedures or potential treatments. Many participants mention family and partner support but failed to include any support offered from the healthcare system (Roomaney & Kagee, 2016). It has been reported that many of the patients experiencing chronic pelvic pain have either been misunderstood or had their pain minimalised (Till et al., 2019; Denny, 2009; Bryant et al., 2016; Jones et al., 2004). Patients not being believed might explain why the implementing of support is scarce. Perhaps the issue is ignorance around pain conditions affecting women and the sheer absence of understanding.

Support is also location dependent. One pilot study of psychological treatments was completed in the field of chronic pelvic pain but was only inclusive of one National Health Service (NHS) trust in the UK (see Forbes et al., 2020). This poses a problem: not all trusts are identical, they all work independently of one another. Having thorough mental health provisions that are specifically for chronic pelvic pain would be of benefit, and more so if the various NHS trusts worked together.

Could the stark contrast in support obtainable for those with chronic pelvic pain be down to the intimate nature of many of the conditions associated with it?

In the field of psychology and mental health, we are in a prime position to implement real change. Nobody should feel as though their experience isn't valid and that they don't matter. Many experience anxiety and depression (Siqueira-Campos et al., 2019). Let's help reduce the number of individuals experiencing such crippling mental health. I would love to hear more about psychology combining with medicine to provide the interventions that people desperately need.

Charlotte Wall,
Bolton