School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
BMC Womens Health. 2022 Feb 11;22(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s12905-022-01618-z.
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) causes non-cyclical pelvic pain, period pain, fatigue and other painful symptoms. Current medical and surgical management strategies are often not sufficient to manage these symptoms and may lead to uptake of other therapies.
To determine the prevalence of allied health (AH) and complementary therapy (CM) use, the cost burden of these therapies and explore predictive factors for using allied health or complementary medicines.
An online cross-sectional questionnaire using the WERF EndoCost tool was undertaken between February to April 2017. People were eligible to participate in the survey if they were aged 18-45, living in Australia and had chronic pelvic pain.
From 409 responses, 340/409 (83%) of respondents reported a diagnosis of endometriosis. One hundred and five (30%) women with self-reported endometriosis, and thirteen (18%) women with other forms of CPP saw at least one AH or CM practitioner in the previous two months, with physiotherapists and acupuncturists the most common. Women who accessed CM or AH services spent an average of $480.32 AUD in the previous two months. A positive correlation was found between education and number of AH or CM therapies accessed in the past two months (p < 0.001) and between income level and number of therapists (p = 0.028).
Women with CPP commonly access AH and CM therapies, with a high out of pocket cost. The high cost and associations with income and education levels may warrant a change to policy to improve equitable access to these services.
慢性盆腔痛（CPP）会导致非周期性盆腔痛、经期痛、疲劳和其他疼痛症状。目前的医学和手术治疗策略往往不足以控制这些症状，可能会导致其他治疗方法的采用。
确定使用辅助健康（AH）和补充疗法（CM）的流行程度、这些疗法的费用负担，并探讨使用辅助健康或补充药物的预测因素。
2017 年 2 月至 4 月期间，使用 WERF EndoCost 工具进行了一项在线横断面问卷调查。如果年龄在 18-45 岁之间、居住在澳大利亚且患有慢性盆腔痛，则有资格参加该调查。
在 409 份回复中，340/409（83%）的受访者报告了子宫内膜异位症的诊断。105 名（30%）自我报告患有子宫内膜异位症的女性和 13 名（18%）患有其他形式 CPP 的女性在过去两个月中至少看了一位 AH 或 CM 从业者，其中物理治疗师和针灸师最常见。在过去两个月中接受 CM 或 AH 服务的女性平均花费 480.32 澳元。在过去两个月中，接受 AH 或 CM 治疗的次数与教育程度呈正相关（p<0.001），与收入水平呈正相关（p=0.028）。
CPP 女性通常会接受 AH 和 CM 治疗，而且费用很高。高费用以及与收入和教育水平的关联可能需要政策做出改变，以改善对这些服务的公平获取。
