Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions

A cluster of conditions that frequently co-occur, can be local or widespread, and either solely or predominantly affect women are referred to as chronic overlapping pain conditions. They include:

• Endometriosis
• Fibromyalgia
• Painful bladder syndrome
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Chronic low back pain
• Headaches
• Migraine and tension headaches
• Vulvodynia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome

Once a patient has one of these conditions

• It becomes more common that they can develop another condition
• Over the course of a lifetime, patients can suffer from multiple conditions at one time...and one condition gets better and another begins
• Some of these conditions only affect women (such as endometriosis and vulvodynia)