NHS Lothian Pelvic Pain Management Programme

The Living with Pelvic Pain group is an online pelvic pain management programme. The group is for women who are living with chronic pelvic pain. 

You may have been living with chronic pelvic pain for a long time and have had multiple investigations and tried a number of treatments. However, despite this your pain persists. 

Persistent pain is complex and can affect people in lots of different ways, not just physically. You might be feeling down, frustrated and that your family and friends do not understand. You might be experiencing difficulties with everyday activities and pain could be affecting your relationships, psychological wellbeing and sense of self. Research tells us that attending a pain management programme is helpful for people with persistent pain.

What happens after a referral is made?

• You will initially attend an assessment appointment with a specialist pain psychologist. The fact that a psychologist is meeting you does not mean that we think that the pain is not real or that it is “in your head”.
• This appointment will last approximately 50 minutes and you can choose between a face-to-face, video call or telephone format.
• You can attend this appointment with a friend or family member if you wish.
• At this appointment we can discuss more about the group and together decide if this is something that could be helpful.

What to expect from the group

The Living with Pelvic Pain group is an opportunity to learn more about Pain Management Techniques and start putting these into practise.

• It is an online group.
• The group runs over 8 fortnightly sessions on a Thursday morning.
• Six of the sessions are 2½ hours long. Two sessions are 3 hours long.
• The group is run by a Pain Specialist Psychologist.
• There is also input from other members of the multidisciplinary pelvic pain team.

It is a group with people with similar experiences. We recognise that living with Chronic Pelvic Pain is often very isolating and it can be very important to meet others with similar experiences and consider together how to build tools to step back from the vicious cycle of pain. You will not be expected to share in depth details about your own experiences, but rather there is a focus on feeding back how building in changes helps you.

During the programme, we will provide you with programme workbooks and handouts. We may also direct you to videos and resources to look at in your own time.

There is a big focus on practising skills, both within the group, but even more importantly, outside of our group sessions. We think of it almost like starting to put together a Jigsaw puzzle including the elements below, noticing how all these things might come together to help us live the best life we can alongside our pain.

Follow the link below to watch a webinar hosted by Wellbeing of Women which includes a previous group participant talk about her experience of the Living with Pelvic Pain group.

Let's Talk Pelvic Pain - YouTube video