A tool for the assessment of chronic pelvic pain

A specially designed pain questionnaire can assist in the diagnosis and management of patients with ‘chronic pelvic pain’. Questionnaires used generally include information about demographics, a medical, sexual and marital history, an assessment of psychosocial stressors, depression, and physical findings. We have added a method of quantifying the location and severity of the patient's pain. The use of this new assessment tool facilitates rapid, visual and comprehensive evaluation of these difficult patients. Through the use of this assessment method, often overlooked factors such as referred pain, unrecognized depression, and non-gynaecologic pathologies may be suspected and investigated further. In a preliminary evaluation of this tool in 72 patients with chronic pelvic pain, nearly one in four patients indicated ‘pain’ in sectors above the diaphragm which might have been overlooked. These patient's scores differed significantly from a comparison group of patients undergoing laparoscopic tubal steriliza...