“It’s not a rare problem, but a rarely diagnosed problem.” That was the word from John White (Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Chicago, USA), who along with American Venous Forum colleague Arjun Jayaraj (RANE Center for Venous and Lymphatic Diseases, Jackson, USA) is leading a charge to raise awareness of pelvic venous disease in women.
Earlier this year, the pair were co-directors of the AVF Pelvic Venous Disorders Summit (27–28 June, Chicago, USA), which set out to highlight this “major yet under-recognised cause of chronic pelvic pain among millions of women in the USA alone.
“It has been estimated that more than a billion dollars every year is wasted on inappropriate testing and ineffective treatments but the personal cause goes even further,” explains White. “The most common causes of chronic pelvic pain are gynecologic, clearly. But there’s a group of women with no defined gynecologic cause … [and] if you look at the studies that have been done, it would suggest that, of women with no gynecologic cause of their pelvic pain, 80% or more will have pelvic varicose veins as the underlying reason for their pain.”
Despite advances in treatment, White says, awareness among women “that there are treatments to be had” remains low. “The challenge is to let every one know,” he adds. Part of that is reach-out to mainstream media targeted at women, but also the summit itself. “Among the healthcare providers, we need to all be on the same page to make sure we are approaching these women at a logical, scientifically established method, and treating them appropriately and following them to guarantee that what we are doing is of benefit to these women.”
The international symposium discussed the various aspects of pelvic venous disease, allowing venous specialists to “begin to lay the basis to get these women diagnosed and treated appropriately”, White added.
