A “symptom” is the patient’s subjective perception of disease or disturbance in the body. Pain is always subjective, since only the person experiencing it can describe it. A “diagnosis” is a medical designation for a disease or condition that the practitioner has identified based on an evaluation of the patient and his or her symptoms.
Most symptoms are associated with a number of possible diagnoses. For instance, the symptom “anal pain” may be related to anal muscle spasm, for which the medical diagnosis is “anismus.” On the other hand, anal pain can also be experienced without muscle spasm, in which case the diagnosis might well be “pudendal nerve entrapment.”
Unfortunately, many practitioners associate common symptoms, such as perineal (“crotch”) pain, with certain routine diagnoses, such as “prostate infection”, that may or may not be correct in a given case. We frequently see men who have been diagnosed with “prostate infection” that has not responded to the antibiotics they’ve been taking. Generally, Dr.Weiss finds no sign of infection and is able to trace the cause of their pain to pelvic floor muscle and/or nerve injury.Without carefully examining the patient and considering all possible causes of the problem, an accurate diagnosis is not likely to be made.Without an accurate diagnosis, the treatment prescribed is likely to be inappropriate, and hence, ineffective.
Bottom line: In order to effectively treat and relieve chronic pelvic pain or dysfunction, the root cause of the patient’s symptoms must first be found and an accurate diagnosis established. This is crucial!
Symptoms of chronic pelvic pain:
• Anal pain, bladder or abdominal pain
• Constipation or pain with bowel movements
• Pain with sitting
• Tailbone or lower back pain
• Sacroiliac or hip pain
