Chronic pelvic pain refers to any pain from below the umbilicus and between the hips lasting for at least 6 months. The pain may be the result of a variety of conditions and Dr. Rahman and her team will carefully evaluate your history and examine you to help determine the etiology. Many times pain from a primary condition such as endometriosis or other causes can lead to a sensitization of the nervous system. This occurs when the threshold of the pain receptors lowers and it increases your perception of pain. This means less signal is required to feel more pain (referred to as upregulation).This upregulation can in turn cause cross-referral of pain to other organs in the pelvis and also lead to a centralization of pain from the signals in the central nervous system (spine and brain) .Dr. Rahman will closely review your history and examination and previous treatments and curate a treatment plan to help eliminate your pain. She works with the team at the Metropolitan Institute of Pain (www.mipainchicago.com) to not only find the pain generator responsible but to work with eliminating the upregulation in peripheral and central sensitization of nerves. Dr. Sajjad Murtaza is an interventional pain/spine specialist that has done wonders for her chronic pelvic pain patients through imparr blocks, caudal epidurals, RF ablation of the nerves as well as peripheral and sacral nerve modulation/stimulation. Another member of the MIP team is Dr. Shoeb Mohiuddin who is also an interventional pain specialist and anesthesiologist and in addition to all of the above procedures described, he can perform ketamine infusions for those with centralized pelvic pain and mood disorders such as postpartum depression, and chronic depression to name a few.
