The short explanation
Pelvic pain that lasts six months or more, or keeps coming back, is called chronic pelvic pain, and it has many possible causes — gynaecological ones such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, fibroids or a past pelvic infection, and others such as irritable bowel syndrome, bladder pain, muscle and nerve problems, or constipation. Often more than one thing contributes. It is worth a proper assessment, because the treatment depends on the cause and a lot of women are told there is nothing wrong when the cause simply has not been found yet.
What depends on your situation
The parts of this that change from woman to woman. Uncertainty is stated, not hidden.
- Clues that help: whether the pain changes with your cycle, with eating or opening your bowels, with passing urine, or with sex; and whether anything eases it. A pain and symptom diary is useful. Stress and poor sleep do not cause pelvic pain, but long-term pain affects both, and treating them is part of treating the pain.
- Past pelvic infection, sometimes untreated and unnoticed, can leave lasting pain — another reason to mention any history of infection.
What this answer cannot determine
The boundary of online education. These need a clinician who can see you.
- This cannot tell you what is causing your pain. It also cannot rule out something that needs prompt treatment, such as infection or an ovarian cyst.
Questions for your clinician
Take these with you. You can add any of them to an appointment card.
- What do you think is the most likely cause, and what are we ruling out?
- Do I need a scan or tests for infection?
- Could my bowel or bladder be involved?
- What can I do for the pain while we find out?
When to seek help
Clinician-approved guidance for this topic. When in doubt, being seen is never the wrong choice.
- Get emergency care now (call 112 or 108) for sudden severe pelvic pain, pain with fainting, fever with vomiting, or pain in early pregnancy or with a missed period.
- See a clinician within days for pelvic pain with fever, unusual discharge, bleeding after sex, or pain that is getting steadily worse.
- Book a routine appointment for pain that has lasted weeks or keeps returning.
Sources
The evidence this explanation is built on.
- Pelvic pain NHS
- Pelvic pain MedlinePlus (NIH)
- Pelvic inflammatory disease NHS
Who wrote and reviewed this
Every AskHer answer names its author. A clinically reviewed answer also names the clinician who signed it off — if no clinician is named below, it has not been clinically reviewed.
- Author
- AskHer Editorial (AI-assisted draft) AskHer's editorial team — not an individual clinician Works in English, தமிழ், हिन्दी
- Clinical reviewer
- Nobody yet No clinician has signed this answer off, and no person on the editorial team has read it yet. That is what the “Written with AI assistance” label means. It is queued for an editor to read, and then for a clinician who works in this area. The sources it was drafted against are listed above.
- Review status
- Written with AI assistance — not yet reviewed by a person
- Last reviewed
- Not yet reviewed by a person
- Version
- 1
Correction history
Substantive changes are listed, not quietly edited away.
No corrections have been made since this answer was first published.
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