A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF WOMEN WITH CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN, CHRONIC NONPELVIC PAIN AND THOSE WITH NO HISTORY OF PAIN ATTENDING GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS

Objective To investigate and compare the demographic and psychosocial profiles of women with chronic pelvic pain, chronic pain in a differen t site, and those with no history of pain with specific reference to a history of sexual abuse. Design A prospective comparative study. Sett ing Pelvic Pain Clinic at Leicester General Hospital NHS Trust, Pain M anagement Clinic at Leicester Royal Infirmary NHS Trust and two Genera l Practices.Participants Thirty women with chronic pelvic pain, 30 wom en with chronic pain in a different site and 30 women attending their general practitioner with no history of pain. Interventions A specific ally designed patient profile questionnaire to identify and explore in cidents of sexual and physical abuse was administered to each woman by a research psychologist for confidential self-completion. Data were a lso collected on other demographic, medical and psychosocial character istics. Results Women with chronic pelvic pain were found to have a hi gher lifetime prevalence of sexual abuse, involving penetration or oth er genital contact compared with the two comparison groups. The preval ence of physical abuse was the same in all groups. Women in the pelvic pain group were more likely to have approached their GP for symptoms not related to pelvic pain than women in the other two groups and the incidence of clinical anxiety was significantly higher in this group c ompared with the pain-free group. The prevalence of sexual problems wa s much higher in the group with pelvic pain compared with the other tw o groups. Conclusion These findings indicate that women with chronic p elvic pain have a higher incidence of past sexual abuse compared with women in a comparison pain group and with women with no pain.