Chronic pelvic pain: cause, diagnosis and therapy from a gynaecologist's and an endoscopist's point of view.

Chronic pelvic pain is a significant problem in gynaecology, as the causes often cannot be found by a general gynaecologic examination. Subsequently, the women often consult various physicians without a right and precise diagnosis being made. Thus, it is necessary to find a possibility for how to help these women quickly and effectively. As in nearly 1/3 of the cases the reason for the pain is an endometriosis and in another third, adhesions are responsible for the pain, the biggest part can be diagnosed and treated by laparoscopy. If laparoscopically no reason can be found, it is advisable to send the patient to a psychosomatic physician, who then can start a correspondingly differentiated diagnosis and therapy.