Health Organization for Pudendal Education

About 2 months ago I was trying to gain flexibility in my lower body.

I was doing some silly exercises such as bending over to touch my toes, but I was holding a 20kg barbell to force myself lower. I think I may have forced myself too much and damaged something
I was also doing lunges as well and holding the position for 30 seconds or more.

Ever since doing this I've had pain in my rectum and perineum area. My job involves sitting at a desk for eight hours a day, so the last two months have been awful. I would do anything to be able to just sit down with no pain.

I get the following symptoms:
Rectal pain
Perineum pain
Numb penis
Numb penis when doing push ups
Loss of sex drive
The feeling that the skin around the anus is inflamed


Now if I sit with my cheeks apart and not touching, the symptoms are not as bad.

I get most relief when I'm walking, even standing in one position can put some strain in that region.

During the weekends if I don't sit too much the symptoms almost disappear but return as soon as I go back to work.

Do these sounds like symptoms associated with Pudendal Nerver damage? Or could it be prostate issues. I'm 28.

Maybe I should take a couple of weeks of work and let my body recover fully.

Do you have any urination issues? Seems like that is a biggie with prostate issues. It sounds pudendal to me. Make an appt with your PCP, take some information on pudendal neuralgia with you, and then start your journey to figuring out what's going on.

Best of luck to you....we are all here to guide you

cari

I've had urination issues for about a year and a half, as in I have to go more often than I should be, and the flow rate isn't good.

Maybe this bending over aggravated the prostate.

I did a search on numb penis and found Shon had posted some info about trigger point pressure he did that helped him in his topic of desperate for help (numb penis). A qucker search on Shon would get you there. Maybe a physical therapiat could help - see the home page for listings of PTs as well as doctors. Limiting sitting and using a cushion to limit the pressure when sitting helps. I can only relate to to anal pain since mine started there and of course the need to sit 8hours and wishing I could. There is a good deal of info on the site and we are with you to help.
Janet

Hi Reckless,

I can soooo relate to what you are saying because my symptoms started after weightlifting. If you are lucky, you might just have some pelvic floor tension from straining those muscles and maybe the pudendal nerve is just irritated from that. You don't have enough information yet to know if you have a nerve entrapment.

Have you been tested for a prostate infection? It seems unlikely there would be prostate enlargement affecting urine flow at your age. PN/PNE is frequently misdiagnosed as prostatitis. If you think about it, what nerve innervates all the areas you listed that you are having symptoms in? It's the pudendal. The pudendal affects urine flow since it innervates the bladder sphincter.

My guess is you've already quit the exercises. Is there any way you could stand up at work and if you have to sit down use a good cushion? If you have a nerve entrapment, it's best if you can just avoid sitting altogether but that is not a long-term solution obviously. If you have a nerve entrapment when you bend over it stretches and irritates the nerve so you probably want to avoid that also.

Occasionally people get better just by changing lifestyle but you may want to go ahead and start nailing down a diagnosis by seeing a physical therapist who specializes in pudendal neuralgia and considering a 3T MRI from Dr. Hollis Potter in NYC. There's another guy someone posted about who is also skilled at detecting PNE on MRI's but I'd have to look up his name -- I think he's in Vermont.

Even if you want to just rest up for a couple of weeks and see if you get better, you might want to get some appointments set up just in case and you can always cancel them if you do so in plenty of time.
Take care,

Violet M

Many thanks for the reply Violet.

I think the best thing for me would be two weeks completely off work with hardly any sitting. I would have done it ages ago, the thing is I'm an IT contractor and only get paid when I go in to work, so I'll be losing out on money. But screw it, health is much more important than money!
There is also a problem on the doctor front, I'm from England but working temporarily in Northern Ireland. I saw a private doctor who prescribed ciprofloxacin but that had no effect. I also saw a private urologist who did not even examine me and instead said he needed to ut a camera up my urethra as he thinks I have a stricture.

I've also ordered a Sitz bath to help relax the muscles down there, I plan on sitting in it for 2 hours a day.

The things you take for granted eh, like sitting down with no pain.

There are quite a few physio's listed on the home pages in Ireland, maybe someone on there can help you discover if it's a muscle tension thing. Hope so.
Take care
Helen