Introduction: Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is one of the most frequent symptoms in women of reproductive age. This is an enigmatic clinical condition that results from the complex interactions of physiological and psychological factors with direct impact on the social, marital, and professional lives of women.
Aim: To evaluate the quality of life and sexual satisfaction of women who suffer from CPP with or without endometriosis.
Method: Forty-nine patients who had been diagnosed with endometriosis and 35 patients with CPP diagnosed with another gynecological condition, all 84 of whom were treated at the Chronic Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis Clinic at Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) from January to July of 2008. The controls were 50 healthy women from the Family Planning Clinic at UNIFESP.
Main outcome measures: World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-Bref (WHOQOL-BREF) quality of life questionnaire and the Golombok-Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS).
Results: No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups with CPP symptoms, in either the results from the WHOQOL-BREF or in the GRISS questionnaire. In both questionnaires, differences were observed when the two groups of symptomatic women were compared with the group of healthy women.
Conclusion: CPP caused by endometriosis or other gynecological conditions leads to a significant reduction of quality of life and sexual satisfaction.
© 2010 International Society for Sexual Medicine.