Neurologic disease presenting as chronic pelvic pain

Abstract

Neurologic disease as a cause of chronic pelvic pain may be more common than previously reported. We report three cases wherein patients with complaints of pelvic pain were subsequently found to have neurologic disease involving the lumbosacral spine. In all three cases, the presenting features were complaints of cyclic or noncyclic lower abdominal pain attributed to endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, or uterine fibroids. When conventional therapies failed to resolve the pain, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbosacral spine showed a neoplasm in one patient and disk herniation in two patients. Evolving lumbar disk disease or intradural neoplasms in the upper lumbar area can produce symptoms interpreted as pelvic pain. Symptoms consistent with radiculopathy occurred late in the course of each of the three cases reported.