New Facebook - Pelvic Pain News

WE ARE MOVING TO FACEBOOK!

There's always more to do for pelvic pain, and as you know, I am not always great at writing on this blog.

To keep women and girls up to date on the latest news, we now have a facebook page - Pelvic Pain News -  especially for young women and girls with pelvic pain. Maybe we'll have something on mens pelvic pain one day too :)

Phoebe our administrator will keep it up to date, and make sure you hear about new treatments, ideas, radio, interviews and information as soon as it's available. 

We'd really appreciate your help spreading the word, too. Maybe you have a sister, friend or daughter who just has such a hard time with pain. 

If you like what you see, please remember to LIKE US and SHARE US with your friends. It all helps give pelvic pain a bigger profile in our community.

The Endometriosis New Zealand video on the page is just wonderful!

Thanks heaps for your support, and tell us if you have any trouble finding it. We are just new at this.....

Susan

Great new Endometriosis New Zealand Video

Hey, the new Endometriosis New Zealand video is just wonderful.

Hope you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajQ4UNiLOFw

New clinic for teens

Its Endometriosis Awareness Month!

This month is really exciting for us. Dr Clare Fairweather, a GP with a real passion for women's health is starting a special clinic just for teens with bad periods and pelvic pain. There are way too many girls spending days in the sick bay at school, and helping their pain early is a great way to avoid all those troubles you know too much about.

If you know any teens with pain, Clare would love to see them. They don't need a referral and will be really well cared for. 08 8363 2811 (Adelaide) to find out more.

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.