RELATIONSHIP OF LAPAROSCOPIC FINDINGS TO SELF-REPORT OF PELVIC PAIN

An assessment battery including standardized measures of behavioral and psychosocial factors associated with other chronic pain conditions was administered to 102 women scheduled for laparoscopic surgery. Surgeons who were blinded to the patient's self-reported pain data completed the American Fertility Society classification for endometriosis and adhesions on the basis of observed physical disease. Although American Fertility Society classification scores were significantly related to self-assignment into pain or no-pain groups, the extent of physical disease evaluated by this procedure was not significantly correlated with ratings of pain levels or a number of indexes of impairment. The group of patients with laparoscopically diagnosed pathologic conditions reported higher pain levels and greater interference than the group who reported pain and had negative laparoscopic results; however, some women with observable pathologic conditions reported no pain symptoms.