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Men experience pelvic pain & IC too

By DrE
October 8, 2007 in Expert's Corner

Recently, we received an email from a man who wondered why no one talks about male pelvic pain. My experience with male patients with IC and pelvic pain has not been extensive but we have had good success with those we have seen.  The national statistics show that IC gender ratio is about 8:1 regarding female to male prevalence of this disorder.  However, it is likely in my opinion that it is higher in men than currently believed.  The book, “Headache in the Pelvis,” was written by urologists from California. They describe how so many men are diagnosed incorrectly with “prostatitis”
who really have pelvic pain symptoms from IC.

Symptoms in men can be very similar to those in women and include urinary frequency, urgency, night-time awakening to void (nocturia), and otherwise unexplained pelvic pain including sexual pain.  I have several young men who have erectile pain, ejaculatory pain, and deep myofascial pelvic floor dysfunction with “gripping” sensations throughout the deep pelvis as well. We treat them very similarly to the women.  Most of them have already seen at least several urologists and family doctors and have not improved following the treatments for prostatitis or urinary tract infections as their
cultures are negative.

Medications for IC such as Elmiron, Hydroxyzine, low acid diet, Prelief, and neuropathic pain meds such as Neurontin and nortriptyline can be used very
effectively.  In addition internal release and pelvic floor physical therapy can be prescribed by therapists trained specifically for these pelvic “high
tone” disorders. Men with these chronic symptoms that don’t clear with the usual approaches (just as women) need to seek out specialists that know something about all these approaches in both women and men.

Our web site was developed in large part to start raising awareness to as many people suffering from these disorders as possible.  We are attempting
to educate patients so that they can find the legitimate resources that are available out there in their own communities to find the help that you so
desperately need.

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My Philosophy of Treatment by Dr. E

By DrE
August 13, 2007 in Expert's Corner

I have been practicing Obstetrics and Gynecology for 37 years. Most of those years have been here in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (except for a few years in Bangkok, Thailand for the US Army, and 5 years – 1995-2000 - in Las Cruces, New Mexico, working for an indigent based clinic).

As the medical partner for http://www.SecretSuffering.com, I would like to share my background with you and how my own practice as a specialist in chronic pelvic pain (CPP) has evolved.

Upon returning to Bethlehem, PA in 2000, I was asked to establish a non-surgical program for women with chronic pelvic pain for a hospital in Bethlehem. I had no idea at the time how rewarding an experience this was destined to become. I had always thought that the excitement and gratification I received during the years I spent delivering several thousand babies, and doing my best to care for the gynecological needs of women through their life cycles could never be matched … until I ventured into this new professional endeavor.

We developed an approach and a “model” for assessing, educating and treating women with the wide variety of painful symptoms known, in total, as Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP). Many of our patients (close to 500 women and a handful of men) have benefited immeasurably and regained their health.

Guiding these patients, many of whom had suffered for years and even decades, back to health, made my newly created program an absolute pleasure to work in. It is my hope that I continue to help CPP sufferers for the remainder of my professional years.

The current health care system in America, as many of you realize, is “broken” in many ways and in need of incredibly intense reform. The primary incentives for physicians and other health care providers is to spend as little time with patients as possible, and carry out as many invasive tests and surgical procedures as they can. Consequently, most of the patients that I see in our program have had numerous procedures, surgeries and tests, and have seen many different specialists who have not been able to “fix” their painful symptoms. In many cases, patients are at their lowest point when we begin to see them.

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Welcome from Dr. E

By DrE
August 13, 2007 in Editor's Corner

Read about Dr. E’s background

Sandy, my nurse, calls the comfortably cushioned high-back chair next to my desk the “Memory and Crying Chair.” In our practice, we usually meet with patients for about two hours on their first visit. We have learned that we have to do this in order to truly begin to help them figure out what is wrong and begin to “connect the dots.” By the time women find us, they have usually been through the wringer with doctor after doctor, endless procedures and tests, told that it’s all in their head, feeling worse than ever, completely demoralized and hopeless. They fear that we’ll just put them through the cookie cutter of testing and procedures, resulting in more of the same frustrations and disappointments they’ve already experienced.

We don’t.

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