April Patterson was one of my earliest guests, and her first episode on persistent genital arousal disorder remains one of the most listened to episodes on this podcast.

April is a pelvic floor physical therapist who specializes in PGAD. She has also lived it. After spinal surgery addressed her original PGAD symptoms nearly a decade ago, new symptoms kept building.

Left lower quadrant pain, bladder pain, GI symptoms, clitoral changes, leg symptoms that did not match any nerve pathway. She was dismissed, she was told everything looked fine, and she kept pushing anyway. What they eventually found was pelvic venous disease. And it explained so much of what April dealing with.

In this episode:

• How PGAD and pelvic venous disease can overlap and mimic each other
• The symptoms that finally pointed to a vascular cause
• What the procedure involved and what they found
• How this is changing the way April approaches her own patients
• Why the vessels need to be part of the diagnostic conversation in pelvic pain

If you have been told everything looks normal and you are still in pain, please share this episode. These are the conversations that change the trajectory for women who have been searching for years.