Evidence and experience
What the evidence and two decades of surgical experience say about chronic pelvic pain myths.
Myth: a normal scan means nothing is wrong. In nerve pain a normal scan is expected, not reassuring.
Myth: pelvic pain is psychological when tests are negative. Pain that follows a nerve territory and changes with posture is anatomical, whatever the tests showed.
Myth: nothing can be done. For a compressed nerve, decompression is a real, established surgical option in the right patient.
Dr Bollens is a professor of urology, a proctor in pelvic surgery and a published author on pudendal neuralgia.