Introduction:
For the past century, countless attempts have been made to find physio-pathological explanations for chronic pelvic pain in women as well as for the severe and disabling forms of dysmenorrhoea that can lead to absence from school or even work, often with serious socio-economic consequences (1).
Research on this subject began in the 1950s with Allen and Masters’ theory on tears in the large ligament (2). Then came the role of uterine retroversion in the 1960s (3), the effect of intra-peritoneal adhesions from the 1970s (4), the effect of prostaglandins in the 1980s (5), the possible role of pelvic varicose veins in the 1990s (6), Petros’ theory of ligament laxity (7) from the 2000s, and finally, more recently, endometriosis (8) which is now widely mentioned, despite a long period of disinterest.
However, although endometriosis is one of the major underlying causes of chronic pelvic pain and severe dysmenorrhoea, it does not explain all of the symptoms.