Chronic Pelvic Pain— Part 2: An Integrated Management Approach

hronic pelvic pain (CPP) in women is a condition that substantially affects quality of life and has an economic impact approaching US $2 billion annually. CPP is believed to affect at least 4% and in some studies as many as 40% of women who seek primary care. CPP is responsible for 10% of all referrals to gynecologists, 12% of all hysterectomies, and more than 40% of all laparoscopies. Part 1 of this 2-part series addressed the prevalence, etiology, and evaluation of patients presenting with this complex symptom. This article completes the series with a discussion of integrative management of patients with CPP. Recent findings strongly suggest that a teamoriented, multidisciplinary approach is more effective than the traditional strategies that have frequently been employed in the past. Traditional approaches to patient care tend to focus on organ systems and not the whole person; they tend to emphasize making a definitive Chronic Pelvic Pain— Part 2: An Integrated Management Approach