title: Relating pelvic pain location to surgical findings of endometriosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study whether pain location is related to lesion location in women with chronic pelvic pain and biopsy-proven endometriosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A secondary analysis was performed to compare self-reported pain location with recorded laparoscopy findings for location and characteristics of all visible lesions. All lesions were excised. Endometriosis was diagnosed using histopathology criteria. The pelvic area was divided into three anterior and two posterior regions. Lesion depth, number of lesions or endometriomas, and disease burden (defined as sum of lesion sizes, or single compared with multiple lesions) were determined for each region. Data were analyzed using t tests, Fisher exact tests, and logistic regression modeling, with P values corrected for multiple comparisons using the step-down Bonferroni method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women with endometriosis (n = 96) had lower body mass indexes, were more likely to be white, had more previous surgeries, and had more frequent menstrual pain and incapacitation than did chronic pain patients without endometriosis (n = 37). Overall, few patients had deeply infiltrating lesions (n = 38). Dysuria was associated with superficial bladder peritoneal lesions. Other lesions or endometriomas were not associated with pain in the same anatomic locations. Lesion depth, disease burden, and number of lesions or endometriomas were not associated with pain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this group of women with biopsy-proven endometriosis, few had deeply infiltrating lesions or endometriomas. Dysuria and midline anterior pain were the only symptoms associated with the location of superficial endometriosis lesions. The lack of relationship between pain and superficial lesion location raises questions about how these lesions relate to pain.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00001848.
  
  
  METHODS
  : II.
authors.affiliation: From the Program in Reproductive and Adult Endocrinology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology Service, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; and the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Albert L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Ninet
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sinaii
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Segars
authors.forename: Lynnette K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Nieman
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stratton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D050071:Bone Density Conservation Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008875:Middle Aged; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D020849:Raloxifene Hydrochloride / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D050071:Bone Density Conservation Agents; D020849:Raloxifene Hydrochloride