Although pelvic congestion syndrome was first discovered by Richet M.A. back in 1857, it has been shockingly overlooked in women experiencing chronic pelvic and lower back pain. Once considered psychosomatic, doctors have developed better means of explaining and diagnosing this painful and very real condition to the point where its treatment has a high success rate.
Pelvic congestion is caused by varicose veins deep within the pelvis. The veins which take blood from the pelvic area back up to the heart have faulty valves that leak blood back down and cause pooling. This pooling of the blood is what causes the pain and can effect the ovaries, uterus and vagina.
Pelvic congestion syndrome presents in women between 20 and 40 years old. Symptoms include constant dull or achy pain in the pelvic area, sometimes presenting in the lower back with occasional stabbing pain. Prolonged sitting, walking, daily activities and lifting can increase the discomfort. Lying down usually significantly decreases the pain and can all but disappear when the patient stands again. This has to do with the re-pooling of the blood when the patient is upright and dissipation while lying down.
Symptoms related to pelvic congestion syndrome include pain during periods and sexual intercourse, tender ovaries especially when prodded by your physician, backache, bladder irritation, abnormal bleeding and vaginal discharge and symptoms related to irritable bowel syndrome. The general pain experienced is usually a dull aching sensation with occasional sharp pains. Women with a history of a tilted or prolapsed uterus or varicose veins in their legs and/or anus have a higher risk of pelvic congestion.
Pelvic congestion syndrome symptoms are rather common and can be linked to other conditions as well, which makes a diagnosis difficult to come by. Conditions such as endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease and fibroid tumors are usually ruled out first before a doctor suspects pelvic congestion syndrome. Unfortunately, this syndrome is too often overlooked and patients continue to suffer from chronic pain.
When Pelvic congestion is suspected, many tests from intervaginal ultrasound to MRI but the best test/treatment by far is a Varicocele embolization. In this procedure a catheter is inserted into the femoral vein and up to the faulty ovarian vein. The defective vein is closed off by specialized coils and the blood flow is then rerouted, which relieves the pooling of blood and therefore any associated pain. The cure rate for this procedure is quite high, as high as 80% according to John Hopkins Medicine and recovery time is about two days. According to Radiology Today, a small study conducted by Robert I. White, Jr, MD showed that recurrence after embolization was non-existent.
Physicians are finally starting to take notice of this condition and more and more women, about 80,000 a year according to Radiology Today are finding relief from their chronic pain. More importantly for some, they are able to attach a name to their long-standing condition.
Sources
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/vascular/conditions/pelvic/index.html
www.radiologytoday.net/archive/rt50806p14.shtml
