Women's Health

Treatment for chronic female pelvic pain can be approached in two ways: treating a known, specific cause of the pain or treating the pain itself as a medical condition. If possible, your doctor will combine the two approaches.

Treatment of a known or suspected cause of pelvic pain

Based on your history, pelvic exam, and testing results, your doctor may find one or more conditions that could be causing your pelvic pain or making it worse, such as endometriosis, irritable bowel syndrome, or uterine fibroids. Depending on the cause, your treatment may include:

• Medicine to control or stop the ovulation cycle, if cyclic hormonal changes seem to make your symptoms worse.
• Other disease-specific medicine, such as an antibiotic for infection or medicine for irritable bowel syndrome.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy, counseling, or biofeedback.
• Surgery to remove painful growths, cysts, or tumors. (But studies have shown that surgery to remove scar tissue, or adhesions, does not relieve pain unless the adhesions are severe.¹)
• Healthy lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise to manage stress and improve strength, mood, and general health, along with dietary changes, such as those recommended to manage irritable bowel syndrome.

Pain treatment

For both new (acute) and chronic pelvic pain, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the first-choice treatment for relieving pain and inflammation. NSAIDs are also highly effective for relieving menstrual pain because they block production of prostaglandin, which is responsible for cramping pain. Your doctor may recommend an NSAID taken on a regular schedule. Different types of NSAIDs work for some people but not for others. If a non-prescription NSAID such as ibuprofen doesn't work, your doctor may recommend a different type, possibly a prescription NSAID.

For cyclic pain that seems to be caused or made worse by menstruation, stopping ovulation and controlling hormone levels is commonly recommended and sometimes effective.

• Birth control pills (oral contraceptives) or high-dose progestin are commonly prescribed to reduce painful menstruation. Oral contraceptives are often prescribed for endometriosis-related pain, though there is little research that shows them to be effective.¹ But when the risk of using an oral contraceptive is low, it is typically worth trying for several months.
• Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRH-As) can relieve endometriosis-related pain by stopping production of the hormones that make endometriosis worse. GnRH-A treatment may also relieve cyclic pelvic pain not related to endometriosis, as well as pelvic pain related to irritable bowel syndrome.¹ But this short-term treatment induces menopause for as long as you take it, with side effects such as hot flashes and loss of bone density. For more information, see the topic Endometriosis.

For chronic pelvic pain, combining medical and psychological treatment increases your chances of treatment success. Medicines that may help manage your chronic pelvic pain include:

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), taken on a regular schedule to relieve pain caused by inflammation or menstruation. If one type doesn't work for you, your doctor may recommend trying another before discontinuing NSAID therapy. Talk to your doctor about whether NSAID therapy is safe for you, how much to take, and what type of schedule to follow.
• Tricyclic antidepressant medicines (TCAs), which are used to treat chronic pain in other areas of the body also. Limited research suggests that TCA therapy decreases chronic pelvic pain intensity for some women.¹
• Narcotic pain medicine, which is only recommended as a last-resort, short-term treatment for severe pelvic pain because of the risk of addiction.