Chronic pelvic pain shares many of the same challenges as other pain conditions, namely that it is notoriously resistant to conventional treatment and the pain can make daily life intolerable. If your pelvic pain is persisting, the doctors at Source Healthcare in Santa Monica, California specialize in interventional treatments such as dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation that can finally deliver pain relief. To learn more, call the office or book an appointment online today.
Achive Pain Relief
What is Pelvic Pain?
Pelvic pain is often associated with women’s reproductive health, but it has a broader definition in fact. It refers to any chronic pain in your lower abdomen that arises from the reproductive, gastrointestinal, and urinary systems. Men can have pelvic pain as well.
What Causes Chronic Pelvic Pain in Men?
Chronic pelvic pain in men is often caused by three health conditions:
- Prostatitis
- Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
- Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
As a group, these conditions are referred to as chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS).
SCHEDULE A
CONSULTATION
What Causes Chronic Pelvic Pain in Women?
Women can also develop chronic pelvic pain due to UTIs and gastrointestinal problems. However, pain is most often due to:
- Endometriosis
- Interstitial cystitis
- Uterine fibroids
- Ovarian cysts
- Vulvodynia
- Fibromyalgia
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
When you have an underlying gynecologic condition, you may also have symptoms such as abnormal menstrual bleeding, frequent urination, and low back pain.
How is Chronic Pelvic Pain Treated?
Chronic pelvic pain often responds poorly to conventional medications. That is when your doctor may recommend surgery as the next step.
However, if you have been through several rounds of conservative treatment and you are still in pain, schedule an appointment at Source Healthcare before you consider more drastic options like surgery. They offer procedures that can help including dorsal root ganglion stimulation.
Dorsal root ganglions are clusters of nerves located just outside your spinal cord where numerous sensory nerves meet before they enter the spinal cord on their way to your brain.
Each DRG includes a group of sensory nerves that serve the same area of the body.
DRG stimulation is a type of neuromodulation that blocks nerve activity using mild electrical stimulation. When a specialized medical device sends the electrical impulses into the DRG, all the nerves in the cluster are blocked, providing pain relief for a broad area of your body.
Your doctor at Source Healthcare can use DRG stimulation to target the specific DRGs that contain the sensory nerves from your pelvic region.
Other interventional treatments that target nerves, such as nerve blocks and spinal cord stimulators (SCS) may also help relieve chronic pelvic pain.
To learn if you’re a good candidate for interventional therapies for pelvic pain, call Source Healthcare or schedule an appointment online today.
