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Pancreatic Cancer

The pancreas is a gland behind your stomach and in front of your spine. It produces the juices that help break down food and the hormones that help control blood sugar levels. Pancreatic cancer usually begins in the cells that produce the juices. Some risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer include:

  • Smoking
  • Long-term diabetes
  • Chronic pancreatitis
  • Certain hereditary disorders

Pancreatic cancer is hard to catch early. It doesn't cause symptoms right away. When you do get symptoms, they are often vague or you may not notice them. They include yellowing of the skin and eyes, pain in the abdomen and back, weight loss and fatigue. Also, because the pancreas is hidden behind other organs, health care providers cannot see or feel the tumors during routine exams. Doctors use a physical exam, blood tests, imaging tests, and a biopsy to diagnose it.

Because it is often found late and it spreads quickly, pancreatic cancer can be hard to treat. Possible treatments include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. Targeted therapy uses drugs or other substances that attack specific cancer cells with less harm to normal cells.

NIH: National Cancer Institute

Pelvic Floor Disorders

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles and other tissues that form a sling or hammock across the pelvis. In women, it holds the uterus, bladder, bowel, and other pelvic organs in place so that they can work properly. The pelvic floor can become weak or be injured. The main causes are pregnancy and childbirth. Other causes include being overweight, radiation treatment, surgery, and getting older.

Common symptoms include:

  • Feeling heaviness, fullness, pulling, or aching in the vagina. It gets worse by the end of the day or during a bowel movement.
  • Seeing or feeling a "bulge" or "something coming out" of the vagina
  • Having a hard time starting to urinate or emptying the bladder completely
  • Having frequent urinary tract infections
  • Leaking urine when you cough, laugh, or exercise
  • Feeling an urgent or frequent need to urinate
  • Feeling pain while urinating
  • Leaking stool or having a hard time controlling gas
  • Being constipated
  • Having a hard time making it to the bathroom in time

Your health care provider diagnoses the problem with a physical exam, a pelvic exam, or special tests. Treatments include special pelvic muscle exercises called Kegel exercises. A mechanical support device called a pessary helps some women. Surgery and medicines are other treatments.

NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Pelvic Pain

Pelvic pain occurs mostly in the lower abdomen area. The pain might be steady, or it might come and go. It can be a sharp and stabbing pain in a specific spot, or a dull pain that is spread out. If the pain is severe, it might get in the way of your daily activities.

If you're a woman, you might feel pain during your period. It could also happen when you have sex. Pelvic pain can be a sign that there is a problem with one of the organs in your pelvic area, such as the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, or vagina. If you're a man, the cause could be a problem with the prostate. In men and women, it could be a symptom of infection, or a problem with the urinary tract, lower intestines, rectum, muscle, or bone. Some women have more than one cause of pelvic pain at the same time.

You might have to have lab, imaging, or other medical tests to find the cause of the pain. The treatment will depend on the cause, how bad the pain is, and how often it occurs.

NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Peritoneal Disorders

Your peritoneum is the tissue that lines your abdominal wall and covers most of the organs in your abdomen. A liquid, peritoneal fluid, lubricates the surface of this tissue.

Disorders of the peritoneum are not common. They include:

  • Peritonitis - an inflammation of the peritoneum
  • Cancer
  • Complications from peritoneal dialysis

Your doctor may use imaging tests or lab tests to analyze the peritoneal fluid to diagnose the problem. Treatment of peritoneal disorders depends on the cause.

Pituitary Disorders

Your pituitary gland is a pea-sized gland at the base of your brain. The pituitary is the "master control gland" - it makes hormones that affect growth and the functions of other glands in the body.

With pituitary disorders, you often have too much or too little of one of your hormones. Injuries can cause pituitary disorders, but the most common cause is a pituitary tumor.

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