Secret Suffering: How Women's Sexual and Pelvic Pain Affects Their Relationships

by Susan Bilheimer, Robert J. Echenberg M.D., Daniel Brookoff

Overview

Through classic, new, and emerging research, with statements from experts and interviews with Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP) sufferers and their partners and spouses, Secret Suffering: How Women's Sexual and Pelvic Pain Affects Their Relationships exposes and gives strong voice and compassionate understanding to this complex disorder.

Secret Suffering: How Women's Sexual and Pelvic Pain Affects Their Relationships is the first book to explain how pelvic and sexual pain affects the lives of women (and men) and their partners in their own words/ The work also provides information on cutting-edge research and describes the most effective treatment modalities. Susan Bilheimer, coauthor, shares her own experiences as a patient who has gone down the painful, frustrating road of living with an illness that is often dismissed and not taken seriously. Robert J. Echenberg, M.D., coauthor, has treated over 700 women (and some men) with the disorder. He shares his decades of experience and expertise as a gynecologist and specialist in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain.

Not only does CPP interfere with a woman's physical and mental health, it can wreak havoc in family relationships, ruin careers, and wreck marriages. In the majority of cases, women suffer in silence. Even when they do seek medical help, what they find too often is inadequate care, as most doctors, even gynecological specialists, are not properly trained in recognizing, much less treating, all aspects of CPP.

Through classic, new, and emerging research, with statements from experts and interviews with CPP sufferers and their partners, Secret Suffering exposes and gives strong voice and compassionate understanding to this complex disorder. Most importantly, information on effective treatments for CPP, as well as the depression and other psychological fallout it may cause, are presented. Through Secret Suffering, Bilheimer and Echenberg finally shatter the silence, educate patients, build understanding, and demand that chronic pelvic and genital pain be taken seriously by the medical community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313359217
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/19/2009
Series:	Sex, Love, and Psychology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Susan Bilheimer is a freelance and technical writer with 18 years experience.

Robert J. Echenberg, MD, board certified in obstetrics and gynecology, is an established practitioner in the field of chronic pelvic/sexual pain in women.

What People are Saying About This

John S. McDonald

"Wonderful thoughtful book. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am so proud of you for taking the time and making the effort because you want to make a difference in other pain sufferers' lives and because you have been through it all. Overall, life is about helping to make others happier and healthier. It's important to realize that we are making progress yearly on the multi-systemed disease links and beginning to unravel the mystery of the pain pathways so that we can better block pain sensations."

Lindsay Novak MA

"A reader can clearly grasp the underpinnings of pain, anatomy and physiology, the myriad of pelvic pain diagnoses, symptoms, treatment options, and most importantly, normalization. Professionals, who are true believers in pain, can highly benefit from this book, also."

Lisa Martinez RN

"Susan Bilheimer and Robert J. Echenberg, MD, FACOG have brought to our attention the challenges and severe frustrations of those with Chronic Pelvic Pain. The Secret Suffering will help women and men overcome many of those challenges and not feel so alone in their efforts to overcome such debilitating pain."

John S. McDonald

"Wonderful thoughtful book. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am so proud of you for taking the time and making the effort because you want to make a difference in other pain sufferers' lives and because you have been through it all. Overall, life is about helping to make others happier and healthier. It's important to realize that we are making progress yearly on the multi-systemed disease links and beginning to unravel the mystery of the pain pathways so that we can better block pain sensations."

—

John S. McDonald, M.D.
Clinical Professor and Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology, Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chief of Staff, Harbor UCLA Medical Center President, Professional Staff Association Harbor UCLA, Clinical Professor Department of Anesthesiology, Clinical Professor Department Obstetrics and Gynecology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles

Lisa Martinez RN

"Susan Bilheimer and Robert J. Echenberg, MD, FACOG have brought to our attention the challenges and severe frustrations of those with Chronic Pelvic Pain. The Secret Suffering will help women and men overcome many of those challenges and not feel so alone in their efforts to overcome such debilitating pain."

—

Lisa Martinez RN, JD Executive Director, The Women's Sexual Health Foundation

Lindsay Novak MA

"A reader can clearly grasp the underpinnings of pain, anatomy and physiology, the myriad of pelvic pain diagnoses, symptoms, treatment options, and most importantly, normalization.

Professionals, who are true believers in pain, can highly benefit from this book, also."

—

Lindsay Novak MA, LIMHP, CPC Sex Therapist and Director of Sexual Medicine & Wellness Center, Omaha, NE

Editorial Reviews

. . . Susan has been a driving force in creating this book and, partnered with Dr. Robert Echenberg, now offers hope and encouragement to the millions of women struggling with this condition. Secret Suffering: Understanding Women's Sexual Pain and How That Affects Relationships has it all. Patient stories, a husband's point of view, a same sex couples experience with pelvic pain, the dilemma confronting single women with chronic pain, faith and the poignant story of two men who experience sexual pain. They talk about the difficulties working with the medical community but the great hope promised by a new, far more accepting medical paradigm of chronic pelvic and sexual pain. The appendix offers 64 tips to relieve sexual and pelvic pain! I can't say enough about this book. It's now at the very top of books I will be recommending to patients struggling with IC and intimacy. This will, beyond any other book I can suggest, break your isolation and show you that you are not alone and that there is hope! It's truly a must read.” —Interstitial Cystitis Network

“Drawing on responses to an Internet survey, this book treats Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP), a 'silent epidemic' said to affect some 15 million American women—and their male/same sex partners. Emphasizing that patients need to be heard and that doctors need to ask the right questions, Bilheimer (a freelance writer who shares her struggles with CPP) and Dr. Echenberg (a CPP expert in private practice in Bethlehem, PA) discuss CPP's physiological and emotional aspects and treatment options. The book includes tips to relieve such pain, self-assessment questionnaires, methodological notes, information on running a CPP pain management practice, and a glossary.” —SciTech Book News

“. . . the book's honesty and directness break open awareness of a critically important issue. With the Internet site (http://www.secretsuffering.com) and book release, one expects that Bilheimer and Echenberg have launched a much longer term project. With the conversation out on the table, the work of affecting policy, research, and access to care should begin to move. And many women and men will realize that their suffering does not need to be secret anymore.” —PsycCRITIQUES

From the Publisher

"Drawing on responses to an Internet survey, this book treats Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP), a 'silent epidemic' said to affect some 15 million American women—and their male/same sex partners. Emphasizing that patients need to be heard and that doctors need to ask the right questions, Bilheimer (a freelance writer who shares her struggles with CPP) and Dr. Echenberg (a CPP expert in private practice in Bethlehem, PA) discuss CPP's physiological and emotional aspects and treatment options. The book includes tips to relieve such pain, self-assessment questionnaires, methodological notes, information on running a CPP pain management practice, and a glossary."

SciTech Book News

". . . the book's honesty and directness break open awareness of a critically important issue. With the Internet site (http://www.secretsuffering.com) and book release, one expects that Bilheimer and Echenberg have launched a much longer term project. With the conversation out on the table, the work of affecting policy, research, and access to care should begin to move. And many women and men will realize that their suffering does not need to be secret anymore."

PsycCRITIQUES

". . . Susan has been a driving force in creating this book and, partnered with Dr. Robert Echenberg, now offers hope and

encouragement to the millions of women struggling with this condition. Secret Suffering: Understanding Women's Sexual Pain and How That Affects Relationships has it all. Patient stories, a husband's point of view, a same sex couples experience with pelvic pain, the dilemma confronting single women with chronic pain, faith and the poignant story of two men who experience sexual pain. They talk about the difficulties working with the medical community but the great hope promised by a new, far more accepting medical paradigm of chronic pelvic and sexual pain. The appendix offers 64 tips to relieve sexual and pelvic pain! I can't say enough about this book. It's now at the very top of books I will be recommending to patients struggling with IC and intimacy. This will, beyond any other book I can suggest, break your isolation and show you that you are not alone and that there is hope! It's truly a must read."

Interstitial Cystitis Network