Clinical profiling of specific diagnostic subgroups of women with chronic pelvic pain.
Demetriou L., Krassowski M., Abreu Mendes P., Garbutt K., Vitonis AF., Wilkins E., Coxon L., Arendt-Nielsen L., Aziz Q., Birch J., Horne AW., Hoffman A., Hummelshoj L., Lunde CE., Meijlink J., Perro D., Rahmioglu N., Terry KL., Pogatzki-Zahn E., Sieberg CB., Treede R-D., Becker CM., Cruz F., Missmer SA., Zondervan KT., Nagel J., Vincent K.
INTRODUCTION: Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a common condition affecting up to 26.6% of women, with many suffering for several years before diagnosis and/or treatment. Its clinical presentation is varied and there are frequently comorbid conditions both within and outside the pelvis. We aim to explore whether specific subgroups of women with CPP report different clinical symptoms and differing impact of pain on their quality of life (QoL). METHODS: The study is part of the Translational Research in Pelvic Pain (TRiPP) project which is a cross-sectional observational cohort study. The study includes 769 female participants of reproductive age who completed an extensive set of questions derived from standardised WERF EPHect questionnaires. Within this population we defined a control group (reporting no pelvic pain, no bladder pain syndrome, and no endometriosis diagnosis, N = 230) and four pain groups: endometriosis-associated pain (EAP, N = 237), interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (BPS, N = 72), comorbid endometriosis-associated pain and BPS (EABP, N = 120), and pelvic pain only (PP, N = 127). RESULTS: Clinical profiles of women with CPP (13-50 years old) show variability of clinical symptoms. The EAP and EABP groups scored higher than the PP group (p