Society guideline links: Female pelvic pain

Introduction — This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately. (See "Society guideline links: Chronic pain management" and "Society guideline links: Chronic prostatitis, interstitial cystitis, and chronic pelvic pain syndrome".)

International

●International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease (ISSVD), International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH), and International Pelvic Pain Society (IPPS): A multisocietal definition consensus on the descriptors of vulvodynia (2019)

●ISSVD, ISSWSH, and IPPS: 2015 consensus terminology and classification of persistent vulvar pain and vulvodynia (published 2016)

Canada

●Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC): Clinical practice guideline for the management of chronic pelvic pain (2024)

●SOGC: Clinical practice guideline on cannabis use throughout women's lifespans – Part 1: Fertility, contraception, menopause, and pelvic pain (2022)

United States

●American College of Radiology (ACR): ACR Appropriateness Criteria on acute pelvic pain in the reproductive age group (revised 2023)

●American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG): Practice bulletin on chronic pelvic pain (2020)

●ACOG and American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP): Committee opinion on persistent vulvar pain (2016, reaffirmed 2020)

●ACR: ACR Appropriateness Criteria on postmenopausal acute pelvic pain (2020)

●American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM): Practice parameter for the performance of an ultrasound examination of the female pelvis (2020)

●ACR: ACR Appropriateness Criteria on postmenopausal subacute or chronic pelvic pain (2018)

●ASCCP: 2013 vulvodynia guideline update (published 2014)

Europe

●European Association of Urology (EAU): Guidelines on chronic pelvic pain (2023)

●2021 European guideline for the management of vulval conditions (published 2022)

United Kingdom

●British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH): UK national guideline on the management of vulval conditions (2014)

●Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG): Green-top guideline for the initial management of chronic pelvic pain, 2nd edition (2012)

●British Society for the Study of Vulval Disease (BSSVD): Guidelines for the management of vulvodynia (2010)