Pelvic Pain Help | A Headache in the Pelvis

The Stanford Protocol and Female Pelvic Pain

The Stanford Protocol, developed in the Urology Department at Stanford University has been able to help a significant number of qualifying women with pelvic pain. Doctors at the Stanford University Medical Center, Department of Urology, worked for 8 years to develop this fundamentally new approach called the Stanford Protocol. The Stanford Protocol has been effective in helping to reduce and at times, with certain patients, resolve symptoms of chronic pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, interstitial cystitis or, more recently called painfull bladder syndrome, urethral syndrome, levator ani syndrome, dyspareunia, pelvic floor myalgia, among other diagnoses. Most of these conditions are related to chronic tension or spasm in the muscles of the pelvic basin and are fed by anxiety, protective guarding and the habitual tendency to tighten the pelvic muscles. It is the clinical experience of the researchers who developed the Stanford Protocol that these conditions of pelvic pain in women are related to the same causes, and responsive to the same treatment, as those that are observed in the men with a variety of chronic pelvic pain syndromes.

The symptoms that the Stanford Protocol has been effective in treating in women with pelvic pain include the following kinds of symptoms:

vaginal pain
rectal pain, anal pain,
pain around or above the pubic bone
discomfort with sitting
discomfort or pain with or after intercourse or sexual anxiety
exacerbation of pelvic pain related to menstruation
exacerbation of symptoms with stress and anxiety
urethral symdrome, urethral discomfort
urinary frequency
urinary urgency or hesitancy
pain during and after urination
pain during or after bowel movements
pain related to childbirth

The Stanford Protocol uses neither drugs nor surgery, and focuses on the rehabilitation of a chronically sore and tightened pelvic floor. The Stanford Protocol is offered monthly in California in the form of a 6-day clinic open to qualifying patients. The purpose of the monthly clinics is to teach patients how to reduce or resolve their symptoms using the methodology taught at the clinic and to help participants become independent of professional help.

The Inappropriate Use of Surgery and Antibiotics in Treating Pelvic Pain

Those of us who developed the Stanford Protocol involved in treating patients with pelvic pain of presumed neuromuscular origin, particularly when the pain arises from a chronically contracted pelvic floor with active trigger points, no evidence of infection, and no anatomical abnormality have never seen a satisfactory surgical intervention. We have seen patients who have undergone multiple surgeries in a vain attempt to eradicate their problem. In fact for these conditions, surgery, in our experience, has often hurt the patient, complicated management of their condition and often created new pain and made it more difficult to treat the original pain and dysfunction. We strongly advise against surgery for the kind of pelvic pain we describe on this website and in our book, A Headache in the Pelvis. Furthermore, pelvic pain with no evidence of infection rarely responds to antibiotic treatment, and we have occasionally seen patients suffer increased problems from antibiotic treatment, particularly when antibiotics are given over long periods of time.

For the last few years Drs. Wise and Anderson have presented their findings at the American Urological Association meetings, National Institutes of Health meetings, and publications in the Journal of Urology. The Stanford Protocol aims to "break the cycle by rehabilitating the shortened pelvic muscles and connective tissue supporting the pelvic organs while simultaneously using a specific methodology to modify the tendency to tighten the muscles of the pelvic floor when under stress."

Below are abstracts of recent studiesfor male pelvic pain, published in the Journal of Urology reporting the effectiveness of the Stanford Protocol. These results have been reported at the American Urological Association Meetings, the National Institutes on Health meetings, and other professional meetings.