For immediate support and information, join our Pelvic Pain Support Network online community. You can ask questions, learn from other people’s experiences and add your own wisdom too. Join today.
Additionally, the following may be useful when you see a doctor:
- To think about what you want to say before an appointment/consultation. This questionnaire may help. You could take it with you as a prompt to help you remember what you want to say. You could give your doctor a copy if you wish.
- A diary of your symptoms and how severely they affect you. You may want to use a scale of 0-10 for each thing that is bothering you (0= no problem, 10= worst possible problem).
- You may also wish to make a note of what is most important to you in getting improvement. It may take time to get the improvement you wish to see.
Europe has a cross border health care directive and patients can access cross border healthcare. In the case of UK patients this applies to rare/less common conditions.
England and Scotland
The following are NHS pain centres where there are clinicians from various areas of expertise:
Birmingham: University Hospitals, Multidisciplinary Team for male and female pelvic pain (dedicated pelvic pain clinic). Referrals come via the Pain Management service at UHB. In addition there is a regional endometriosis service at Birmingham Women’s Hospital with a female pelvic pain clinic including clinical psychology. Referrals come from other clinics at BWH including endometriosis, urogynaecology and vulval services. We offer a range of pelvic pain procedures including diagnostic pudendal nerve block. Both clinics have access to sexual health services, psychosexual counselling, vulval services and a joint inter-hospital pelvic floor MDT.
There is also a functional bowel disorder service
Other services for patients in the Birmingham area include pelvic floor physio (for pain) – this is a self-referral service; patients ring 0121 507 2664, then select option ‘3’, then option ‘1’ and say that their problem is in their pelvic floor. This service is run at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals by a physiotherapist who also works in their pain service.
For victims of sexual violence, there is a counselling service called RSVP which has a website: www.rsvporg.co.uk
- Bristol – Southmead ,Pain specialist , Colo rectal
- Bristol – University Hospital, Gynaecology, Physiotherapy, Pelvic Pain: female and male
- Edinburgh – Royal Infirmary, Gynaecologist, Pain specialist, Psychologist ( Multi-disciplinary team )
- Leicester Royal Infirmary – Gynaecologist, Pain specialist, Psychologist, Physiotherapist ( Multi-disciplinary team )
- London – Bart’s and the London, Whitechapel: Gynaecologist led pelvic pain clinic
- London, St Mary’s, Paddington (Pain specialist)
- London- University College Hospitals, Pain Management Centre ( Multi-disciplinary team )
- Manchester, Wythenshawe Hospital, Pain specialist
- Manchester, St Mary’s, Gynaecology
- Middlesborough – James Cook University Hospital, Pain specialist
- Oxford – John Radcliffe Hospital, gynaecologist, physiotherapist, Pelvic Pain clinic and adolescent pelvic pain clinic
There are a number of accredited Endometriosis Centres for advanced endometriosis surgery for recto-vaginal endometriosis. These are gynaecologists. Some may work with pain specialists. You may wish to ask the consultant about this.
There are several vulval clinics run by gynaecologists and/or dermatologists.
France
Multi-disciplinary University hospital based centres for pelvic pain including endometriosis, pudendal neuralgia, bladder pain syndrome and vulval pain:
- CHU D’Estaing Clermont-Ferrand. Gynaecology, Urogynaecology, Pain medicine, radiology
- CHU Nantes: Pain medicine, Urology, Neurosurgery, Gynaecology, Colo-rectal
- CHU Rouen: Gynaecology, Gastro-enterology
- CHU Bayonne: Gastroenterology, Neurosurgery
- Tenon Hospital , Paris : Gynaecology, Urology, Neurosurgery
Some other countries have expertise in this field for example the USA and Australia. However their reimbursement systems are often via private insurance in the country concerned. Therefore patients outside of those countries who do not have insurance will generally have to pay the full cost of treatment which may be considerable.
Medical Terms Simplifier
Plain-language description of medical terms related to medicines use: