Lydia Coxon

I am a DPhil student in the Pain in Women lab group, with Katy Vincent and Katja Wiech as my supervisors. I am also part of the EndoCaRe research group.

I am interested in endometriosis-associated pain, particularly the mechanisms by which it arises and psychological factors that influence this pain. Endometriosis has been estimated to affect 1 in 10 women of reproductive age and pain is one of the main symptoms. Studies have shown changes in the periphery and central nervous system in women with endometriosis-associated pain. I will be using MRI images and questionnaire data primarily, to identify central changes in women with endometriosis.

I am interested in investigating neuropathic pain in endometriosis and how stratification of patients can aid our understanding and inform our treatment of women with endometriosis-associated pain.

Prior to joining the group I completed BA Neuroscience (2017) at the University of Oxford.

I am involved in the TRiPP study in Oxford. TRiPP is focused on two specific types of chronic pain: endometriosis-associated pain and bladder pain syndrome. The main hypothesis of TRiPP is that the pain symptoms experienced by women with these conditions are generated and maintained by mechanisms similar to those found in other chronic pain conditions, but occur in combination with specific pathological lesions and symptoms. We believe that reconceptualising these conditions in the context of the multi system dysfunction known for other chronic pain conditions rather than as end-organ pathologies has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the conditions, allow us to identify meaningful subgroups of patients, develop better preclinical models and thus ultimately facilitate drug development in this field.