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Devyanshi Dixit: Central Sensitization and Chronic Pelvic Pain

Devyanshi Dixit/LinkedIn

Oct 13, 2026, 14:30

Devyanshi Dixit: Central Sensitization and Chronic Pelvic Pain

Devyanshi Dixit, Program Manager at CLS Event and Publication and Conference Manager at the 12th Global Summit on Gynecology, Fertility and Women’s Health, shared on LinkedIn:

“The lesion may be gone. The pain may not be.

And that gap could change how we define a successful outcome in endometriosis care.

When pelvic pain persists after surgery or treatment, it is tempting to return to the original question: Is the disease still there?

That question matters. But it may not be the only one.

The nervous system can change how pain is processed.

With central sensitization, the central nervous system becomes more responsive to pain-related signals. In some patients, pain can persist even when current tissue findings no longer fully explain its intensity.

This does not mean the pain is imagined. Nor does it mean that persistent pain proves the pelvis has healed. Residual disease, recurrent pathology, pelvic floor dysfunction and other contributors must still be considered.

The clinically important insight is that removing a pain-generating lesion may not, by itself, resolve every mechanism sustaining pain.

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis, published in 2026, examined central sensitization in women undergoing endometriosis treatment. Across five studies involving 1,271 patients, central sensitization was associated with a higher risk of persistent pain after surgery.

The evidence is promising, but still limited. Central sensitization assessments are not a definitive diagnostic test, and no single questionnaire can predict an individual patient’s outcome with certainty.

Yet the findings raise a valuable clinical question:

Are we assessing only the disease we can see – or also the pain-processing system that may continue to shape the patient’s experience?

For gynecology, this is an argument for broader assessment, realistic preoperative counseling and coordinated care – not for replacing surgical judgment with a questionnaire.

At GFWH 2026, these intersections between gynecological disease, neuroscience and patient-centered care deserve serious discussion.