Chronic Pelvic Pain in women attending Pelvic Floor Clinic at the Imam Khomeini University Hospital. Tehran-Iran, 2011-2012

Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP), a common health problem in women, characterized by any lower abdominal pain that lasted at least six months or more, with no relation to pregnancy, menstruation and intercourse. The pain can affects on activities of daily living negatively and lead to medical or even surgical treatment. According to our knowledge, there are limited studies related to CPP in Iran. Therefore, present study was aimed to survey on CPP in women attending Pelvic Floor Clinic at the Imam Khomeini University Hospital. Methods and materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 516 married women (who were not virgin). Participants completed a designed questionnaire, which included demographic information and questions regarding involvement of gynecologic, urinary, gastrointestinal, musculo - skeletal and psychological systems. After collecting data, binary logistic regression was used to analysis the data. Values of p<0.05 were considered to be significant. 27/9% of women reported current pain in the pelvic area unrelated to menstruation and sexual intercourse, while totally 17/6% suffered from pain over the past 6-12 months or CPP. There were a significant relationship between CPP, chronic low back pain and dyspareunia (p=0.04 and p=0.03 respectively). Our data did not show significant difference between the prevalence of CPP, types of delivery and history of having trauma to the spine and pelvis. This comprehensive study provided an extensive and multidimensional approach regarding to CPP in our society. As for to estimation 27.9% pelvic pain and 17.6% CPP and their relationship with gynecological, urinary, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal systems, we suggest doing more population-based epidemiological studies, also emphasis on multidisciplinary approach for managing these patients.