Battling Chronic Pelvic Pain Disorders With Acupuncture

Frequently, the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pelvic disorders is conducted in error because of difficulty to diagnose the actual condition responsible for the pain. In these cases, the patient is denied an effective rational treatment aimed at the underlying disease.

Sometimes, undiagnosed proctitis is the cause of the pelvic pain. Term proctitis generally means inflammation of the lining of the rectum, called the rectal mucosa. Proctitis can be short term (acute) or long term (chronic) and may have many causes. It may occur as a side effect of certain medical treatments like a course of antibiotics. Inflammation of the rectal mucosa may be related to ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, hemorrhoids, yeast infections, herpes, conditions that cause inflammation in the colon or small intestine. Other causes include rectal injury, bacterial infection, allergies, chronic pancreatitis and cholecystitis.

Some of the symptoms often correlate with chronic pelvic pain disorders, specifically anal and/or rectal pain, itching, left-sided abdominal pain, bloating, gas, indigestion, heaviness and discomfort after meals, constipation. It is easily explained because urinary bladder, prostate, rectum and colon share sympathetic, sacral parasympathetic nervous system and mucosal epithelium permeability.

In many cases that I have been involved in, occurrence of these symptoms is connected with particular occupation of the patient. My office is located in Northwest suburbs of Chicago, major transportation hub and I have seen significant above average numbers among Chicago area truck drivers, limo and taxi drivers that pursue my services. Based on these cases that is available in my practice, I've come to a subjective but logical conclusion that one of the possible overlooked causes of this problem is rectal traumatic injury caused by extended hours of prolonged seating in the same positions in addition to constant vibration and frequent bumps of the pot holes. These small but frequent and repeated traumas can cause neurological abnormalities and inflammation and/or irritation which lead to pelvic floor dysfunction and may be one of the underlying causes of these conditions: chronic abacterial prostatitis, prostatodynia, painful bladder syndrome, interstitial cystitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome. All of the above have similar, overlapping urinary symptoms of the following: frequency, urgency, and pain.

All these pelvic conditions are considered to be non-manageable and incurable by conventional medicine. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical treatment and surgical procedures have proven to be insufficient and costly. In United States alone 10 to 15 million men and women suffer from these debilitating conditions. Luckily, there is hope to those people that are diagnosed with Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome and IC and Chronic Prostatitis. It is acupuncture, which have been around for thousand of years delivering great results without side effects and has been proven as effective treatment for chronic inflammation.

Specific acupuncture protocol will deliver great results. The use of multi-level approach and focus on addressing underlying cause of the problems, not just the symptoms, guarantees success.