The search for a diagnosis.

It can take years from the first time you experience symptoms until the first time a provider gives you an accurate diagnosis. When you're suffering, the search for a diagnosis can be all-consuming.

We think that your symptoms and your experience matter more than a medical provider's diagnosis.  It's your symptoms that brought you here.  It's your symptoms that impair your daily activities, make sex painful, or cause you anxiety.  Once you find a treatment that helps you, improves your quality of life, and reduces your symptoms, you're on the right track.

To learn more about our Forget the Diagnosis philosophy, check out the resources below.

The patient's perspective: why I wanted a diagnosis when I had pelvic pain, and what made me give up on ever getting one.

"When I had pain, I was desperate to receive a diagnosis. I wanted to know whether I had pudendal neuralgia, vulvodynia, or something else entirely. I thought that if I could just get the name of my condition, then I could find the cure and the right doctor.

I was so wrong. I never did get an official diagnosis, but I did get better. And now, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, that I put way too much emphasis on that whole concept. It felt like a diagnosis would be something concrete that I could hold onto, but it was the opposite."

The doctor's perspective: the limits of pelvic pain diagnoses.

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Pelvic physical therapist's perspective: why my focus is on quality of life improvement.

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Let's review the basics.

If you can explain your symptoms, your providers will be better able to refine their treatments to the specific issues causing you discomfort. For a basic refresher, check out our anatomical diagrams below. Each can be downloaded and printed as a PDF. Highlight and write on it, and hand it to your doctor at your next appointment. "Here! This is the spot that hurts."

Pathological diagnoses.

Not all diagnoses or conditions are equal. Some issues will only resolve with surgery, while others will only be made worse with surgery. It's for this reason that you need to have a doctor on your team who you can trust.