Choosing the Right Practitioner

The right practitioner should work with you as a partner, help you understand your options, and provide ongoing support. Below are some points to consider and questions you may wish to ask when choosing a pelvic pain practitioner.

What to Look for in a Pelvic Pain Practitioner

Consider whether your practitioner:

• Works as part of a team, coordinating with your GP and relevant providers (e.g., pelvic physiotherapy, psychology, pain specialists, urology, dietetics, gynaecology).

• Has specific pelvic pain experience, such as additional training, a pelvic pain caseload, or work in a specialised clinic.

• Takes a whole-person approach, considering pelvic, bowel, bladder, musculoskeletal, nervous system, and mental wellbeing factors.

• Explains options clearly, including benefits, risks, costs, and what improvement may realistically look like.

• Uses shared decision-making, involving you in every step and respecting your goals and preferences.

• Offers a range of evidence-based options, including non-surgical and non-medication strategies where appropriate.

• Practises trauma-informed, consent-based care, ensuring you feel safe and in control during any examination or treatment.

• Provides follow-up and flare planning, not just a one-off appointment.

• Is inclusive and culturally safe, respectful of identity, background, and individual circumstances.

• Keeps up to date with current evidence and guidelines for persistent pelvic pain.

Accessing Additional Support

You may also wish to ask your GP about:

• Chronic Disease GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangement, which can provide subsidised visits to allied health professionals such as physiotherapists.

• Mental Health Care Plan, which allows access to subsidised psychologist sessions to support both pain management and the stresses that can make pain worse.

• Diagnostic imaging (ultrasound/MRI). You can ask your GP whether imaging is appropriate. A pelvic ultrasound (including transvaginal ultrasound) may help assess for conditions such as ovarian cysts, fibroids, or signs of adenomyosis, and in some cases can detect deep endometriosis. However, imaging may be normal even when pelvic pain is significant—so results should be considered alongside your symptoms and clinical assessment. If a transvaginal ultrasound isn’t right for you, ask about other options and what they may miss.

• Referrals to relevant services:

  • Specialist referrals: gynaecologist with pelvic pain/endometriosis expertise, persistent pelvic pain clinics, pain services (public/private).

  • Pelvic physiotherapy: clarify that “pelvic health physiotherapist” is different from general physio experience.

  • Dietitian: especially if bowel symptoms overlap (IBS-like symptoms) or food triggers are suspected.

  • Continence nurse/urology: for bladder pain, urgency/frequency, or recurrent symptoms.

  • Sexual health/sex therapy: for sexual pain and relationship impacts (if relevant).

  • Support services: peer support groups, patient organisations, helplines, culturally specific services where appropriate.

Building your Multidisciplinary Pelvic Pain Management team

The phrase “many heads are better than one” is a sentiment that rings very true in healthcare, particularly when someone is experiencing a variety of symptoms or challenges. For pelvic pain, which can involve so many different systems in the body, it’s common to be referred to a number of different practitioners. In a multi-disciplinary team each practitioner comes with their own knowledge base, skills, ideas and insights, to optimally inform management of your pelvic pain.  

There is no formula for the ‘right’ people to have in a multi-disciplinary team. It’s all about connecting an individual to the practitioners who can best support them with their particular symptoms or struggles. Let’s take a look at some of the different practitioners who could be involved in a pelvic pain management team:  

General Practitioner: A GP is often the first port of call, for good reason! GPs are not only skilled clinicians, they are essential for helping identify and connecting you to specialists (both medical and allied health practitioners) when needed. GPs have the means to make referrals through systems like Medicare (if appropriate) and are able to coordinate your care between multiple practitioners. It’s really important to feel that you can trust and speak openly to your GP. Having a referral from a GP can reduce the cost of some diagnostic scans and referrals. 

Gynaecologist: A gynaecologist is a specialist doctor who has extensive training in managing conditions that affect the female reproductive system. They can assess your risk of developing gynaecological conditions as well as diagnose and treat conditions affecting the female reproductive organs.  

Pain Specialist Doctor: Pain specialist doctors are medical doctors who have trained extensively in the management of persistent pain conditions. They can diagnose pain related conditions, provide medication options, interventional treatments and recommend strategies for managing pain-related problems such as an overly sensitive nervous system or poor sleep.  

Pelvic Physiotherapy: Pelvic physiotherapists have undertaken special training in the management of problems in the pelvic area. The pelvic area is the area between your belly button and your upper thigh, so they help manage problems arising from that area, including the bladder, bowels, reproductive organs and pelvic floor muscles. Pelvic physiotherapists can utilise a range of strategies including manual therapy, movement based approaches and education to help manage pelvic pain and dysfunction.  

Psychologist: Psychologists can help individuals expand their toolbox of strategies for managing pelvic pain. Examples of these strategies can include teaching individuals about activity pacing (helping develop sustainable activity levels to reduce flare ups), pain education (understanding how pain works in the body and specifically what might worsen or improve pain for an individual), stress, relationship management, mindfulness and so much more.  

Dieticians: Dieticians are skilled at providing advice on nutrition, supplements and lifestyle changes to manage pelvic pain and digestive symptoms. Dietary changes can make a big difference in reducing pain and fatigue, and dieticians are skilled at helping individuals understand how to address their specific symptoms.  

Exercise Physiologists: Exercise physiologists are allied health practitioners that help people manage chronic health conditions through movement. Unlike Physiotherapists, they do not provide manual (or ‘hands on’ therapy) and do not make diagnoses. Exercise Physiologists are skilled at helping people increase their physical capacity to reach their goals, providing specific exercise and lifestyle advice on exercise/movement-based approaches for different conditions like persistent pain, endometriosis, PCOS, chronic fatigue, arthritis, mental health and much more.   

Acupuncturists: Acupuncturists are Chinese Medicine Practitioners who use acupuncture needles in specific locations on the body to stimulate the nervous system to help manage various pelvic conditions. Acupuncturists may also use other techniques such as cupping, herbal remedies, moxibustion and advice on food or gentle movement for pelvic pain management.  

As you may be aware the pelvis is a busy place. On top of that there’s a constant conversation happening between our brain, organs, muscles and our nervous, immune and endocrine systems. A multidisciplinary team can help you unpack that conversation and respond with the specific treatment that you need to work towards better health, pain management and quality of life.   

Key Takeaway

Choosing the right practitioner can make a significant difference to how you experience and manage pelvic pain. Look for someone who listens, collaborates, and empowers you to take an active role in your care. Asking the right questions at the start helps you build a supportive, effective partnership in managing your pain and improving your quality of life.