Pelvic Adhesions: What You May Not Know

Some women will never even know that they have pelvic adhesions. For others, pelvic adhesions lead to a variety of women’s health conditions, including chronic pelvic pain and infertility. Often robbing women of fulfilling relationships, the gift of motherhood, and overall quality of life, these bands of internal scar tissue can have a profound impact on patients’ lives.

Here are some facts you may not know about pelvic adhesions:

Pelvic adhesions can be found between any two tissue surfaces, including the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, bowel, and bladder, or inside structures such as the fallopian tubes.
Most women, particularly those middle-aged or older, have some degree of pelvic adhesions or scarring.

Approximately 25 percent of women with chronic pelvic pain have adhesions.
Adhesions are responsible for as many as 20 percent of female infertility cases.
Post-surgical adhesions are one of the most common causes of small bowel obstruction.

Severe pelvic adhesions can cause a condition known as a ‘frozen’ pelvis, in which pelvic organs that are meant to be mobile and free fuse together, causing pain and dysfunction.
Surgery to remove adhesions is not the only available treatment option. Our manual physical therapy has been shown to reduce pelvic adhesions, without the risks of adhesion re-formation that are associated with surgery.
Pelvic adhesions are a major cause of intercourse pain for women, causing moderate to severe pain at the vaginal entrance or with deep penetration.