Women Don't Have to Live With Chronic Pelvic Pain
Many women with chronic pelvic pain have been undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
Approximately 15 percent of all gynecological visits are made by women age 18 to 50 years to address symptoms of long-term pelvic pain. Many women suffering from pain in the pelvic area lasting for more than six months go untreated.
“An accurate diagnosis is most important in treating chronic pelvic pain,” said Leslie Chupp, M.D., regional director of the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health at the Permian Basin. “This requires a comprehensive medical evaluation. There is often more than one condition causing the pain. Some patients abnormally process pain because of different chemical processes in the body.”
To address these concerns, the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health recently opened the Chronic Pelvic Pain Clinic, a sub-specialty clinic of the Jenna Welch Women’s Center housed in the Texas Tech Physicians of Midland building.
Providers at the clinic coordinate multidisciplinary medical care for diseases like endometriosis, vulvodynia, fibromyalgia, chronic intestinal pain and chronic urologic pain. Clinic physicians also offer minimally invasive diagnostic and surgical procedures and the most current medical therapy available.
“Chronic pelvic pain can be constant or recurring and occur at any time including during menstruation, before and after eating, while urinating or during intercourse,” Chupp said. “It is debilitating on a woman's daily life as well as on her physical, mental, and emotional well-being.”
There are many possible conditions that can cause chronic pelvic pain, however, it is not always possible to pinpoint a specific cause, Chupp said. Health care providers at the clinic understand these painful conditions, and are dedicated to providing answers.
Chupp is currently taking appointments at the Chronic Pelvic Pain Clinic beginning at 1 p.m. every Tuesday. For more information about how to make an appointment, call Lisa Ojeda, R.N., BSN, at (432) 620.5850 x262 or email elizabeth.ojeda@ttuhsc.edu.
Learn more about chronic pelvic pain.
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