The Pain of Urological Origin (PUGO) special interest group of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) held a two-day meeting last August 15 and 16, 2008 in Scotland prior to the IASP 12th World Congress on Pain to consider the past, present and future of urogenital pain. The aim was to outline current practices and have a look at what the future may hold.
The following excerpt discussed on endometriosis:
Fred Howard from the University of Rochester spoke on the endometriosis pain syndrome. Chronic pelvic pain in women is most commonly of gastrointestinal origin followed by the urinary tract and finally the reproductive tract. Endometriosis is a histologic finding, not a syndrome per se. We don’t know the percentage of patients with endometriosis who also have pelvic pain, nor do we know the percent of women with pelvic pain who have endometriosis. We don’t understand how it causes pelvic pain, why removing lesions doesn’t always end the pain, or why similar symptoms are seen in patients with and without endometriosis. The triad of symptoms associated with endometriosis includes dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and chronic pelvic pain. This can be referred to as the endometriosis pain syndrome. Dr. Howard quoted Frank Ling’s report (Obstetrics and Gynecology, 93:51-58, 1999) showing the efficacy of depot leuprolide for chronic pelvic pain in women suspected of having endometriosis, whether or not the diagnosis was borne out on subsequent laparoscopy, a rather curious finding. Work by Sutton, Jones, and Abbott strongly suggests that endometriosis lesions can cause pain and that surgical treatment is more effective than diagnostic laparoscopy in randomized, controlled trials (Fertility and Sterility, 62:696-700, 1994) (JSLS, 5:111-115, 2001) (Fertility and Sterility, 82:878-884, 2004).
Source: Newswise
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