my vulvudynia story and a review on Dr Micheal Durtnall

[gal]

I am 25 yrs old ,I living in Israel, just finished nursing school , cannot work or go out of home, I am on opiates 24/7. I had multiple falls on buttocks in childhood with no resulted pain afterwards. This whole coccyxdynia and vulvudynia started 3.5 years ago upon first intercourse and slowly progressed till chronic pain.

During this past year, I went through vestibulectomy surgery, did a lot of pelvic floor physiotherapy, used dilators, lubricants with lidocaine, was checked by well known genicologists and pain doctors, done acupuncture and tried hypnosis, osteopathy and internal manipulations,homiopathy and tried all kinds of oils, baths and cremes. All the doctors told me that there is nothing to do and I will have to live with the pain for the rest of my life. I found myself crying in the bathtub, afraid from any kind of touch from my husband, and feeling hopelesss and deppresed,the pain was there all the time,so burning and i coudn't use underpants or pants at all,i'm using a short boxers and wearing only dresses. I have tried every type of pain killers from opiates to lyrica. simbalta, eletrol and amithriptaline and the list is long. one orthopedic doctor even suggested it might be fibromialgia , I was mad and frustrated from him.

I have done bilateral pudendal nerve radio frequency and steroid injections to reduce inflammation of the area including the coccyx - these were done 1.5 months ago with a 30% reduction in vulvudynia for 10 days and then the pain came back, and no effect at all on the tailbone pain. Vulvudynia has recently worsened with period.


After a hell of a year, when the doctors told me the pain is only in my head and there is no more things to do, my husband found Dr Micheal Durtnall through coccyx.org.

During that time I went through a physical examination and x-ray at the Sayer clinic London by Dr Micheal Durtnall and now I am currently back in London for a few weeks of treatments ,He found that the coccyx is inward and the angle of the sacrum is abnormal and the there is a connection that the vulvodynia pain is originating from the pudendal nerve.

Now I have passed the first week, after 2 appointments with Dr Micheal, one appointment with Martha (the physiotherapist) and Chifumi, (the masseuse ) I can surely say that vulvodynia pain is 30% better and the pain in the tailbone is somewhere around 40% better. I truly hope things will keep getting better, For the first time I have true hope in my heart.
i will keep update during the treatments.

[Alan1646]

Thanks for your review. Just one question please: were you at any time diagnosed with Pudendal Neuralgia? Forgive me for asking that, but I wonder whether your symptoms are related to Pudendal Neuralgia and if not, their relevance to this site.

[Violet M]

Hi Gal,

Welcome to the forum. I am glad to hear you are improving.

I just wanted to comment on Alan's question. It might actually be irrelevant whether you have had a formal diagnosis of pudendal neuralgia (PN). I think we have discussed many times on this forum how pudendal neuropathy can be one of the causes of vulvodynia. So just the fact that you have vulvodynia means your symptoms are relevant to this site -- whether or not it is caused by PN or not. We are allowed to discuss related topics on this forum.

I hope you continue to see improvement in your symptoms.

Violet