Levesque, Amélie, Riant, Thibault, Ploteau, Stéphane et al. · Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2018 · DOI
This study created a simple checklist to help doctors identify when chronic pelvic pain is caused by the nervous system becoming overly sensitive, rather than from a structural injury or disease they can see on tests. Experts agreed on 10 key signs to look for, including pain that changes in intensity, pain triggered by normal activities, and having other conditions like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome alongside pelvic pain.
ME/CFS patients frequently experience comorbid pelvic and perineal pain, and this tool may help clinicians recognize central sensitization as a shared pathophysiological mechanism across these conditions. Understanding sensitization in pelvic pain could improve symptom management and validate the neurobiological basis of pain in ME/CFS and related disorders.
This study does not prove that central sensitization causes pelvic pain, only that certain clinical signs may indicate its presence. The study does not validate the tool prospectively in actual patient populations, nor does it establish whether identifying sensitization changes patient outcomes. It does not determine causality between sensitization and any of the comorbid conditions listed.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Levesque, Amélie, Riant, Thibault, Ploteau, Stéphane, Rigaud, Jérôme, Labat, Jean-Jacques, & Convergences PP Network (2018). Clinical Criteria of Central Sensitization in Chronic Pelvic and Perineal Pain (Convergences PP Criteria): Elaboration of a Clinical Evaluation Tool Based on Formal Expert Consensus.. Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.). https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pny030
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-levesque-2018-clinical-criteria,
author = {Levesque, Amélie and Riant, Thibault and Ploteau, Stéphane and Rigaud, Jérôme and Labat, Jean-Jacques and Convergences PP Network},
title = {Clinical Criteria of Central Sensitization in Chronic Pelvic and Perineal Pain (Convergences PP Criteria): Elaboration of a Clinical Evaluation Tool Based on Formal Expert Consensus.},
journal = {Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.)},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1093/pm/pny030},
note = {PubMed: 29522121},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/levesque-2018-clinical-criteria},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/levesque-2018-clinical-criteria
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