Acute pelvic pain

Last revised by Jeremy Jones on 20 Sep 2021

Acute pelvic pain is a common presenting symptom to the emergency department and radiologist. Pelvic ultrasound with transabdominal and endovaginal approaches is usually the first line imaging modality.

Clinical presentation

  • non-cyclical pain usually of more acute onset
  • pain of <3 months duration

Patients also often present with nausea, vomiting, and leukocytosis.

Differential diagnosis

The differential can be divided into non-obstetric and obstetric etiologies. The two are often differentiated by obtaining a preliminary beta-hCG level.

Non-obstetric etiologies include:

Obstetric etiologies include:

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