Interdisciplinary Pelvic and Vulvovaginal Pain Workshop

Pelvic and vulvo-vaginal pain each affect approximately 15% of women. Both types of pain may range from mild to severe and may impact activities of daily living, psychological well-being, or intimate relationships. Women with pelvic or vulvo-vaginal pain can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach, which combines medical treatments with allied health care including physiotherapy and psychological treatments. There may be commonalities in pathophysiology between pelvic pain and vulvo-vaginal pain, and in fact, many women can have both types of pain. Therefore, there is synergistic potential for more integrated clinical services and research programs.   

On September 20th, 2018, the BC Women’s Centre for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis and the BC Centre for Vulvar Health will host an interdisciplinary workshop bringing together clinicians, researchers, patients, and other stakeholders to develop a unified approach to pelvic and vulvo-vaginal pain in women. The workshop will focus on the major barriers to integrated care for women with both pelvic and vulvo-vaginal pain. In particular, there will be sessions focused on streamlining the referral process between the two centres, common data collection, appropriate definitions and measurement of sexual pain, and the development of a proposal for a joint grant application. 

Each workshop session will be facilitated by expert researchers and clinicians. We are very excited to welcome Dr. Candace Brown from University of Tennessee, who will share her experiences developing a patient-reported outcome measure of vulvo-vaginal pain and will help identify specific objectives for a grant application. Other facilitators include; Dr. Lori Brotto, Canada Research Chair in Women’s Sexual Health and author of Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire; Dr. Leslie Sadownik, Director of the BC Centre for Vulvar Health; and Dr. Paul Yong, Research Director at the BC Women's Centre for Pelvic Pain & Endometriosis.

Members of the BC Pain Research Network who are interested in attending the workshop can contact Research Coordinator Heather Noga at heather.noga@cw.bc.ca. We welcome individuals with an interest in or experience with sexual pain, the psychometric measurement of pain, or interdisciplinary pain management. Please note that the capacity of this workshop is limited, and event registration is by invitation only.