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A Headache in the Pelvis, a New, Revised, Expanded and Updated 6th Edition: A New Understanding and Treatment for Chronic Pelvic Pain SyndromesPaperback– March 1, 2012
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“When I see patients after they’ve read the book I can often see a change in their faces”
This is a book that helps patients empower themselves in their own healing. With this book, patients learn how to gain control over their chronic pelvic pain. It is not a hocus-pocus solution; it is a long-term program that must be adapted into one’s daily routine. I have witnessed firsthand how patients willing to change their behavior have been able to find healing…When I see patients after they’ve read the book I can often see a change in their faces. To understand that we have the ability to affect our own healing process can be life changing. Ragi Doggweiler, MD Associate Professor Director of Neuro-Urology and Integrative Medicine, Division of Urology University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
“This has truly become the “Bible” for patients who suffer from pelvic floor muscle dysfunction”
After reading over the 6th edition of “A Headache in the Pelvis,” all I can say is “Wow”…Drs. Wise and Anderson have done it again! This has truly become the “Bible” for patients, both men and women, who suffer from pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. The book demystifies a condition that is so frequently overlooked and often mistreated in clinical practice. It empowers the patient to be their own caregiver; while it encourages partnerships with clinicians who can be tremendously helpful in the patient’s path to symptom improvement. “A Headache in the Pelvis” is on the top of my recommendation list.
Robert Moldwin, MD Author, The Interstitial Cystitis Survival Guide
“…offer a therapeutic option that can bring relief to many”
Many pelvic pain patients go from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, without improvement, often feeling abandoned. A majority of patients with chronic pelvic pain do not respond to conventional therapies (antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs), leaving a huge void. Drs. Wise and Anderson offer a therapeutic option that can bring relief to many.
Bart Gershbein, MD Clinical Instructor Department of Urology University of California School of Medicine San Francisco, California
“one of the most useful books for people who suffer from chronic pelvic floor pain”
The sixth edition of A Headache in the Pelvis by Drs. Rodney Anderson and David Wise continues to be one of the most useful books for people who suffer from chronic pelvic floor pain. The book details a method for resolving pelvic pain by rehabilitating the pelvic floor muscles that have often been the brunt of anxiety or a reaction to a trauma or surgery. This new edition has filled in many of the answers raised since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2003….This new treatment model is based upon Drs. Rodney Anderson and David Wise’s work at Stanford University Medical Center.
Erik Peper, PhD Professor Institute of Holistic Health Studies San Francisco State University
“this book has changed the way I think about pelvic pain”
Drs. Wise and Anderson have updated their important book on pelvic pain. This work has changed the way I think about pelvic pain. I now can find the clues in the physical exam (pelvic muscle spasm) that I had previously missed. This book is required reading for any clinician dealing with pelvic pain patients.
Stephen Bearg, MD Obstetrician-Gynecologist Past Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Marin General Hospital Kentfield, California
“a pioneering method that empowers patients …to understand and help reduce their pain and symptoms.”
A Headache in the Pelvis is an excellent book, brimming with warmth, compassion and insight. It describes a pioneering method that empowers patients with pelvic pain to understand and help reduce their pain and symptoms. It is the very best kind of medicine, in that it teaches patients how to reduce their own symptoms themselves. This book is for people affected by pelvic pain and for family members who care about them; it's also for the medical providers who work with these patients.
Marlene Cresci Cohen, PhD Director, Behavioral Sciences Valley Family Medicine Residency, Modesto Professor, Volunteer Faculty Department of Family Medicine University of California, Davis
“lamp in the dark suffering of chronic pelvic pain”
A Headache in the Pelvis is a lamp in the dark human suffering of chronic pelvic pain. This book is a precious document that will help many people.
Robert Blum, MD Former Chief, Department of Neurosurgery Marin General Hospital Marin County, California
“this book needs to be read and re-read”
I highly recommend this book to colleagues, clients and friends all the time. It does a great job explaining the connections between muscle tension and pain symptoms. ….I find that after the first reading, the book needs to be read and re-read…… Marilyn Freedman, PT DPT BCB-PMD CAPP Certificate of Achievement in Pelvic Physical Therapy
“new and pioneering approach”
This compelling understanding of chronic pelvic pain syndromes offers a new and pioneering approach to its alleviation.
Frank Werblin, PhD Professor of Neuroscience University of California, Berkeley
“For five minutes I was pain free, utterly relaxed.
It was the beginning of the way back…”
….One gloomy 5am in the winter of 2006, unable to sleep and trawling the net yet again for some explanation of the chronic condition that had made my life a misery, I came across an extract from a book with the ugly title A Headache in the Pelvis. Here, after two years of expensive consultations and invasive medical tests, I found at last an accurate description of my plight.
The authors David Wise and Rodney Anderson listed 23 symptoms, which would tend, they said, “to take on a life of their own”. I had 16 of them, including back pain, constantly changing abdominal pain, frequent nocturnal urination and fierce twinges in legs and perineum. They called it Chronic Pelvic Pain syndrome and concluded: “The effects on a person’s life have been likened to those of heart attack, angina, or Crohn’s disease. Sufferers tend to live lives of quiet desperation. Anxiety, depression and ‘catastrophic thinking’ are the norm.”
I was hugely cheered on reading this. ….. For two years I had oscillated between the conviction that I had cancer, or that my condition was psychosomatic…As each medical test indicated that I didn’t have cancer, I expected I’d quickly feel better. I didn’t…... The doctors proposed to tunnel a motorway through my prostate and permanently open the upper of the two sphincters that controls urination. This wouldn’t alleviate my pains, which they didn’t understand or seem concerned about, but I’d pee better, they thought.
I rebelled. None of the medical tests had indicated problems with my prostate. On the net, many women seemed to have the condition. And now, in A Headache in the Pelvis, I read: “95 per cent of patients with prostatitis do not have an infection or inflammation that can account for their symptoms . . . the prostate is not the issue . . . We have never seen a satisfactory surgical intervention for these pains.”
What to do? I had given up on official medicine. Its drugs made me sick. Its operations threatened my manhood without promising relief. … Now A Headache in the Pelvis talked about years of stressful overachieving, sitting at a desk and an embattled mental attitude that had led me to tense the muscles of my pelvic floor so that they had atrophied and were pinching the nerves that crossed them from bladder, penis and prostate. … I was definitely suffering enough. And growing curious. On your back, allowing your breath to establish its own pattern, eliminating all words from your mind, you focus on tension in the body and just, well, nothing, let it be. You go to meet the pain itself, and again, let it be.
It took many months…I shall remember for the rest of my life the day when, from the dry, knitted tension of my forehead, a great warm wave rose up and crashed across my chest and limbs, sweeping everything before it: thought, tension, pain. For five minutes I was pain free, utterly relaxed. It was the beginning of the way back…”-- The Times of England
“I have witnessed the therapeutic benefits of this book”
Since its first edition, A Headache in the Pelvis has been enthusiastically welcomed by patients suffering from urological pelvic pain syndromes (UCPPS), which may have been previously diagnosed as prostatitis or interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome.
I have specialized in UCPPS for over 15 years, and have been impressed by the educational merits of this book, which provides factual medical information to the patient without exacerbating fears or anxieties. Indeed, I have witnessed the therapeutic benefits of this book, as it provides validation to patients along with empowering management strategies. A Headache in the Pelvis addresses both the physical and emotional aspects of UCPPS in a caring and methodical way, which patients find accessible and nurturing. It has become a wonderful adjuvant to physiotherapy and self care, as well as a support tool for loved ones living with a man or woman who has UCPPS.
Although I recommend A Headache in the Pelvis to all of my patients, I have happily discovered that more and more physical therapists are recommending the book to their referring doctors and to their patients. In many ways, this book communicates effectively to a wide audience, as it is accessible and empowering to patients, interesting and insightful to healthcare providers.
Jeannette Potts, MD Director, Center for Pelvic Pain, Alternative and Medical Urology Services Urological Institute University Hospitals of Cleveland Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio
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This book really saved me from the truly terrible situation. I had suddenly developed pain and a variety of symptoms related to the prostate area, and saw the urologist assuming it was some kind of prostate infection or other kind of prostate problem. The doctor checked out my prostate but couldn't find anything wrong. Never the less, over the next three months I was prescribed three different sets of antibiotics, which did nothing to help the prostate problem but did mess me up physically in many other ways. Luckily I was smart enough to keep doing research on my own, and discovered that so-called prostate problems often stem from other causes. What I discovered was that at some point, from stress, I was actually unconsciously clenching my butt, (along with clenching my jaw and holding my breath) and creating a kind of chronic strain, that was showing up as muscle fatigue and pain, which was creating problems around the prostate, and producing all of the symptoms typical of prostate problems. When I was able to become conscious of what I was doing and stop doing it, as well as using the techniques in the book to return the muscles to normal functioning, my pain went away and so did all the symptoms. The urologist was totally useless to me in this situation. He had no clue that there were other causes of prostate-connected symptoms. Although it's an embarrassing topic, I wanted to share my story so that hopefully no other man has to go through when I went through.
This is an excellent book for anyone who suffers any type of abdominal, pelvic, or low back pain without some known reason. The book explains very well how we who have ever had any type of trauma to these areas from the past have developed chronic muscle tension (guarding) causing less blood supply to organs and other tissues resulting in many different diagnosed illnesses that may be misdiagnosed. They talk about the physical, emotional, spiritual connection in your body and the fight flight and freeze response. If you've ever suffered from unexplained pelvic pain this book is a must. I had a low back fusion 16 yrs ago and even though I've done stretching and exersize I suffered from everything from acid reflex to constipation all because of the muscles in my abdomain, buttocks and back being continually clenched. This book helps you understand how to bring yourself relief and get those overly tight muscles to release. I think every Doctor should read this book.... It would certainly help them to better understand their patients that suffer with this instead of the patient going home discouraged because the Dr. couldn't find anything wrong. I have suffered extreme pelvic anxiety on and off in the middle of the night all because my pelvic muscles have been so tight and not one Dr has had a clue as to why. Great info in this book, money well worth spending for me anyway.
Really a revelation. Extremely helpful, potentially life-restoring. A multidisciplinary approach, physical and psychological. If you have longterm, mysterious pelvic pain, it will address your condition and offer real ways out. One small complaint: it needs to make more of an effort to address women, not just as a variant or subset of the male condition. But it will still help women in a potentially lifechanging way.
My son has found this to be remarkable in every sense. He has been suffering from many of the described symptoms, suffering silently and alone. This book is not only helpful from the explanation point of view, explaining the condition, but has offered numerous exercises which he has found very helpful in alleviating symptoms, and most importantly, helping him feel that he is not all alone in this, that he doesn't have to suffer alone. He requested I read some of the book, which was so very helpful for me; it helped articulate what he could not describe, so that I could better understand what he is going through. Without a doubt, this book is a must-buy, for those suffering from this condition and for those who are close to someone going through this. Deepest gratitude to Dr. Wise and his colleagues for compiling all of this information and putting together this book!!
I wish I had read this book years ago...before countless doctors and surgery. You would not believe how many healthcare professionals will experiment on you when they don't know what the problem is...until you go through it. If you have terrible pelvic pain, do yourself a favor and read this book. Worth every penny.
What I like about this book is the acknowledgement and implementation of the great myofascial pain discoveries of Travell and Simons. Trigger point massage is one of the most underrated practices in medicine and healing arts. I also like that it puts an emphasis on breathing and deep relaxation. One of the main problems I had with this book was the tone in which the speaker addressed the reader. It speaks to you in a way that sounds like they are speaking to a Kindergartner who lost their teddy bear. There is good information here if you can get past the nauseating language of the authors.
Side Note: In my particular case, practicing Tai Chi Chuan (Yang Style) healed my pelvic floor dysfunction more than anything else and I would strongly suggest looking into it.
It is a good, well-written book, but it did not address my particular problem. The friend who recommended it did not really listen to my explanation, and assumed it was the same problem she suffers from. Good intentions.
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