Ontario s first multidisciplinary Chronic Pelvic Region Pain Unit officially opened today at Mount Sinai Hospital. Chronic pelvic region pain is a serious group of disorders that affects many women, says Dr. Allan Gordon, Director of the Wasser Pain Management Centre. To properly treat pelvic pain, we need to take a multidisciplinary approach that includes not just gynaecologists but other disciplines, bringing together neurologists and other pain specialists from nursing, urogynecology, acupuncture, clinical neurophysiology, physical therapy and mental health services. Studies report that 50 to 70 per cent of all women may experience pelvic pain during intercourse at some point in their lives. These conditions include persistent and severe menstrual and mid-cycle pain, endometriosis, vulvar pain syndromes, cystitis syndromes, pelvic muscle pain syndromes, and pains from nerve entrapment.
Men suffer from chronic prostate pain or prostatitis, testicular, groin and penile pain.
There are very few, if any academic centres that look at both men s health issues and chronic pain. This new unit continues to build on our expertise in the care and treatment of pain through the Wasser Pain Management Centre, said Joseph Mapa, Mount Sinai Hospital President and Chief Executive Officer. It is also a natural expansion of the comprehensive programs we offer to women through our centre of excellence in women s and infants health. To our knowledge, there is no other hospital in Toronto with an integrated and dedicated full service pelvic pain unit, nor is there one that is part of a larger academic pain centre. Situated in a teaching hospital, patients coming to the Chronic Pelvic Region Pain Unit will have access to a wide range of services through the Wasser Pain Management Centre s comprehensive multidisciplinary team and will have access to other specialty services within the Hospital and the pain community.