Pelvic Venous Congestion
Pelvic congestion syndrome (PCS) is a common condition in women that causes chronic pelvic pain.
Women can develop pelvic congestion syndrome when varicose veins develop around the ovaries. The valves in these varicose veins can stop functioning properly, causing blood to flow backward, which will cause congestion. Other causes can be multiple pregnancies, polycystic ovaries.
Diagnosis
- Pelvic ultrasound to look for growths in the pelvis
- Doppler ultrasound to check the blood flow in the pelvic blood vessels
- CT scan or MRI for more detailed pictures
- Diagnostic laparoscopy to rule out other causes of pelvic pain
- Venography
Treatment
When pelvic vein reflux is the direct cause of your pelvic venous congestion, our vascular specialists and vein doctors will discuss both medical and minimally-invasive treatment options:
- NSAIDs: Treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may help relieve the patient’s pain in the short term. Analgesia is a good first-line option
- Hormonal treatments
- Pelvic ovarian vein embolization: This is a minimally invasive treatment that is safe and can be done as a day case. You come in for the procedure in the morning and can leave a few hours later the same day.
- In most cases, the ovarian vein is the cause of the varicose veins. However, other pelvic veins, such as internal iliac veins, internal pudendal veins, obturator veins, and ischial veins, may also be responsible and will need treatment as well.
