I Have Pelvic Pain. What Treatment Options Are There for Correcting This Problem?

Pelvic pain itself is not a syndrome but instead a symptom of an underlying cause. It will be important to try and determine why you are having pelvic pain in order to properly treat it. However, diagnosing the root cause can often involve a trial and error process. Your doctor may need to spend some time using various tests to determine your diagnosis. In the meantime, pelvic pain from an unknown cause can be treated through different manners. Below, you will find information on how your doctor could treat pelvic pain.

Treatment for General Pelvic Pain

Dealing with pelvic pain will begin in a more generalized approach. For your comfort, your doctor will want to treat the pain itself while determining its exact cause. A few of the medication-based treatments that may be used include the following:

• These nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are usually the first stop in treating chronic pain. These medications can be found in over-the-counter and prescription strengths. You will need to discuss with your doctor which would be best for your pain therapy.
• If you have more severe pelvic pain, then your doctor may suggest the short-term use of narcotic pain medications. However, these medications are highly addictive and dangerous so they cannot be used for long-term pain management.

In addition to the medications, some research has recently found that certain antidepressants called TCAs (tricyclic antidepressant medicines) can reduce the amount of chronic pelvic pain in some women. This is a fairly new method of treatment, so it may not be the avenue that your doctor will choose to recommend.

Treating Pain When You Know the Cause

If your doctor has determined the cause for your ongoing pelvic pain, then the treatment can be focused on managing that cause, and therefore, managing the pain. Here are some of the treatments that would be used for certain conditions:

• For pelvic pain caused by cyclic ovulation, a medication that stops the ovulation process itself may be used. Generally, this would include certain birth control medications.
• For irritable bowel syndrome, antibiotics can be used to manage infection and inflammation.
• For pelvic pain related to endometriosis, GnRH-As (gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists) can be used to stop the production of certain hormones in the body.
• For severe pain from fibroid cysts or endometriosis, your doctor may suggest surgery as the best option to relieve severe chronic pelvic pain. These procedures are now done using minimally invasive methods which means less pain, less bleeding and shorter recovery time. Generally, surgery is used as a last resort since it may include the removal of reproductive organs.

Pelvic pain can seriously disrupt your lifestyle whether it is chronic or cyclical. In order to resolve the pain, you will need to discuss with your doctor the proper diagnosis methods so that the root cause of the issue can be found. In any case, you will want to find pain treatments to give you relief immediately. After that, your doctor can help you determine which long-term treatment option is right for you.