Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Mar;36(2):136-142.
doi: 10.1055/s-0038-1676090. Epub 2018 Dec 19.

Fibromyalgia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Female Pelvic Pain

Christina M Johnson  1 , Gretchen E H Makai  1
Affiliations
Review

Fibromyalgia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Female Pelvic Pain

Christina M Johnson et al. Semin Reprod Med. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome are common disorders which often coexist in women with chronic pelvic pain. Like pelvic pain, these disorders describe symptoms without pathologic findings. Women with chronic pelvic pain have a higher prevalence of fibromyalgia (4-31%) and irritable bowel syndrome (8-41%) than the general population. Aberrant pain processing and psychosocial stressors are implicated in the co-occurrence of these pain syndromes (chronic overlapping pain conditions), but active epidemiologic, psychosocial, and neurobiologic research is ongoing. Given the higher prevalence of fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome in women with chronic pelvic pain, gynecologists should have more education in diagnosis and treatment of these and other chronic overlapping pain conditions to improve care for women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles