Pelvic Pain on 'The Circle'

As a woman with pelvic pain, you probably know how difficult it is to have something that other people don't understand.

There is so much need for more awareness in our community

Over the next few months, pelvic pain and the new ebook will be featured in magazines and on radio to help spread the word that pelvic pain is real, important and common.

Even more exciting (and a little scary for me) will be a segment on 'The Circle' at 10 am on Channel Ten in Australia on Thursday 3rd November.

Hopefully it goes well :)

Free Pelvic pain ebook

Dear All,

Its an exciting day for us, because our new pelvic pain ebook has been released :)

It is a 20 page PDF introduction to different types of pelvic pain, which you can download for free from our website and send to any of your friends, partners or family, so they can learn more about pelvic pain too.

If you would like to read it, just go to www.drsusanevans.com and click on the link to the ebooklet.

Best wishes and Happy Spring,

Susan

Public Forum Thurs 17th Feb Sydney

Dear Readers,

A very exciting public forum on pelvic pain will be held in Sydney on Thursday 17th February 2011. It is the evening before a seminar for medical specialists. If you are able to attend, it would be lovely to meet you. This is the program and I believe that attendance is free of charge. come early though, as there has been lots of interest.

Happy Christmas and best wishes for a healthy 2011

Susan

The Women’s Health and Research Institute of Australia,

In conjunction with the School of Women’s and Children’s Health of the University of New South Wales, presents:

“A Public Forum on Chronic Pelvic and Perineal Pain”

Royal Hospital for Women (Sydney) Auditorium

17^th of February 2011

17:00 - 18:00 The Auditorium opens and is available for seating on a first come first serve basis

18 - 19:00: Short Presentations by Panel Members

Milton Cohen current understanding of chronic pelvic pain

(rheumatologist)

Susan Evans Endometriosis, the 'whole picture'

(Gynaecologist)

Deborah Bush The role of the community in management of Chronic pain

(CEO Endometriosis NZ)

Sherin Jarvis Physiotherapy for chronic perineal pain

(Physiotherapist)

19 - 20:00: Q&A session

Panel members: Milton Cohen, Susan Evans, Deborah Bush, Sherin Jarvis, Eric Bautrant

Moderator: Thierry Vancaillie

Botox to treat my pelvic pain????

We have all heard of BOTOX to relax the muscles in the face and hide wrinkles, but botox has many other uses too. Children with cerebral palsy have botox injections in the muscles of their arms and legs to stop crampy muscle spasms.

Similar crampy, tight, shortened and painful pelvic muscles are very common in women who have:

* Pain with sex, tampons or cervical smear tests

* A painful ache in the pelvis for a day or so after intercourse

* A pain on the side which can come on suddenly at any time, just like a cramp

* Being unable to pass urine sometimes, even though you really want to

* A sharp pain up the bowel, or,

* Difficulty sitting for a long time, or pain on moving

* Feeling much better after a hot bath or wheatbag

If this is you, then you can check yourself by putting a finger inside the vagina and pushing on the muscles around the opening of the vagina and at the sides of the pelvis about half way up the vagina. If you feel your pain when you push on the muscles, then spasm in these muscles are probably the cause of that pain.

The best treatment is physio with a special pelvic physiotherapist who knows how to treat women with tight painful pelvic muscles. Treatment usually starts with learning relaxation techniques and then training the muscles to work normally. If your problem is severe and you need some extra help, then BOTOX might help. This relaxes the muscles for 3-4 months, which allows you to feel better quicker and work on the physiotherapy needed to stop the muscles becoming tight again. It does need to be injected under an anaesthetic and the pain doesn't improve for around 2 weeks after injection.

Pain from pelvic muscles is a commonly missed diagnosis. It doesn't show on scans or a laparoscopy, but is very very painful.

My doctor says I should see a pain specialist. Why?

It is hard for any doctor to know about all the different pain treatments, so nowadays there are doctors who specialise in pain. They are called pain medicine specialists. Many started their career as anaesthetists (the people who put you to sleep for an operation), but now spend most of their time caring for people with long term pain. Others come from different areas of medicine.

Lots of women with endo have chronic pain, but so do other people in the community. There are those with back pain, migraines, trigeminal neuralgia (pain in the face), pain after a bad leg injury or pain from diabetes. Pain specialists believe that chronic pain is a medical condition itself, rather than a symptom of something else. There may have been something (like endo) that started the problem, but overtime, there has also been a change in the way the nerves send pain signals which has made everything worse and kept the pain going. They use special medications, lifestyle changes, physio and psychological support - and they work with your gynaecologist to help you have as little pain as possible.

If you have pain on most days, or have sharp, stabbing or burning pain, and are lucky enough to live near a pain specialist, they are a great idea.

Improving your man's fertility

It takes two to make a baby and there are lots of things your man can do to help.

A semen test can measure how many sperm he has, how well they move, and how many of them are normal. However it doesn't show if there is any damage to the sperm. This is called DNA fragmentation. Higher levels of DNA fragmentation result in a higher chance of miscarriage, infertility and ill-health in the child.

Your man can improve improve his sperm quality and cut down DNA fragmentation by:

1. Stopping smoking

2. Improving his diet and avoiding overweight. Less fat and more fibre

3. Cutting down on alcohol, and caffeine.

4. Avoiding recreational drugs

5. Taking a vitamin supplement with B Vitamins, Iodine, Folate and Zinc.

6. Avoiding tight fitting underwear

7. Avoiding hot tubs, saunas and electric blankets

8. Checking with your doctor whether his medications affect fertility

9. Avoid environmental chemicals such as lead, pesticides and organic solvents or wear protective clothing

10. Have a blood test for Vitamin D and take a supplement if this is low

Women also benefit from a multi-vitamin and having their Vitamin D checked with a blood test.

Susan

Watch our presentation online!

This week is Endometriosis Awareness Week and to celebrate, we have made a videostreaming presentation with Womens Health Queensland Wide that you can watch free online.

There are 3 presentations that talk about all the different types of pain you might have.

We hope you enjoy them and would love to hear your thoughts.

The presentation is at www.womhealth.org.au and click on 'videostreaming' under Quick Links.

With best wishes for a Happy Endometriosis Awareness Week,

Susan Evans