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Pregnancy and Pain

  • Chapter
Chronic Pain

Part of the book series: Current Clinical Practice ((CCP))

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Abstract

Ms. Rogers is a healthy 29-year-old primigravida in her seventh month of pregnancy. Her pregnancy has been uncomplicated, except for a weight gain of 40 lb. Over the last 4 weeks, she reports a pain in her left thigh. Initially, this would only occur with prolonged sitting or riding in the car, or when waiting in exceptionally long lines in the store. Now she finds that she has nearly constant pain in her upper, outer thigh. Additionally, this painful area feels prickly when she touches it. This week, she has also noticed pain and tingling in her right thumb when she wakes up in the morning or scrubs the counters at her home. Her mother told her that these are the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, just like in a character on the mother’s soap opera television show. A distraught and tearful Ms. Rogers shares her concerns with her primary care physician, who reassures her that pain, including compressive neuropathy, occurs in a significant number of women during pregnancy and that these symptoms usually go away after delivery.

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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pain Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

    Dawn A. Marcus MD

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© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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(2005). Pregnancy and Pain. In: Marcus, D.A. (eds) Chronic Pain. Current Clinical Practice. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-882-X:185

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-882-X:185

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-501-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-882-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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