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Chronic pelvic pain (of ≥6 months' duration) affects as many as one third of all women, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), defined by criteria that include abdominal pain and altered stool characteristics, affects 10% to 20% of all adults. Researchers at a pelvic-pain clinic in North Carolina sought to identify any unique characteristics of women with chronic pelvic pain who also had IBS. They conducted a cross-sectional study that involved all 987 women who were evaluated in the clinic during an 8-year period.
Seventy-eight percent of the women were younger than 40, 81% were white, 53% were at least college educated, 52% worked full time, and 59% were married. Fully 35% had IBS. In a multivariable analysis, age ≥40, muscular back pain, dep…