MANY ORGANS LIVE IN THE PELVIS including the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, urinary bladder, intestines and appendix. To further confuse things, pain from the kidney and pain from muscles and from the abdominal wall can also seem to come from the pelvis.
Pain from normal functioning of the reproductive organs will probably resolve without treatment, may be severe, but is self-limited. A frequent cause of this is a “functional” ovarian cyst. It is easy for a doctor to fall into the trap of doing surgery for such problems because the patient wants the problem solved, and feels that surgery will offer a quick “fix.”
Pelvic pain that may need treatment, but not on an urgent basis Examples of this would include pain from endometriosis, scar tissue or a growing fibroid tumor. Chronic pelvic pain also falls into this category. Schedule an office appointment for the evaluation of this type of pain.
Pelvic pain that needs urgent surgery or hospitalization Examples of this type of pelvic pain would be a ruptured tubal pregnancy, appendicitis, severe pelvic infection or torsion (twisting) of an ovary. Generally this type of pain will require you go to the Emergency Room.