Health Organization for Pudendal Education

For the past 3 months I've had the following symptoms when sitting down for long periods:

Rectal pain - like a burning kind of feeling
Perineum pain
Decreased libido
Penile Numbness, Orgasm difficulties
Sometimes weak urine flow
Painful bowel movments

I believe this all started when I stupidly forced myself to touch my toes by holding weights in my hand, this was followed by lower back and rectal pain and I haven't been the same since.

I've taken two weeks of work now and spend most of my time either walking or lying on my side in a bid to recover.

The strange thing is that pain is reduced when my rectum is full, and then when I go to the toilet it returns, it's also similar when my bladder is full. Also if I spread my legs apart (letting my anus open) it feels better.
After masturbating I feel better for a while. I believe there is some kind of muscle tension issue, I massaged the area near my rectum today and all day I've had this orgasm type feeling in that part of the body.

Does this sound like Pudendal nerve issues? Maybe I have very tight Pelvic Floor muscles.

Does anyone know a good pelvic floor physiotherapist around London?

don't know if all of your symptoms are related to PN damage, but I can tell you one thing

the penile numbness is defininetly PN related as the branches of the PN's have primary sensory responsiblity for the genital area

knowing that you have at least some PN issue causing the numbness, it wold be likely that the same PN issues would be causing at least some of the other symptoms which seem to be consistent with PN damage

bunch of great info on this forum regarding getting diagnosed and importantly, ruling out other possible causes

I've made an appointment with Doctor Andrew Baranowski who deals with Pudendal Nerve Entrapment, the only downside is that the appointment is one and a half months away and it's not cheap.

The thing that bothers me most is that when the trouble initially started, after two weeks I had a good rest at the weekend and the pain stopped but due to a ridiculously long day at work the following monday where I sat at my desk for over 12 hours, the symptoms returned and have never got better.

Hi reckless, welcome
Here is a list of pelvic physios. I have no personal experience of any, sorry. http://www.pelvicphysiotherapy.com/Manu ... pists.html.
I have heard that Dr N Curran who works with Dr. Baranowski is an expert in pudendal nerve pain, http://www.pelvicphysiotherapy.com/Manu ... pists.html
I know that she offers a clinical examination and diagnosis but I am not sure if she does injections. Contact no,s are on the website , maybe you could ring and ask. I would expect you will get in earlier, maybe cheaper too. if she does do private practice that is, it's worth enquiring.
Dr Greenslade costs about £200 private consultation but that's a trip to Bristol.
Try not to sit too much, as this obviously exacerbates your symptoms, like most of us.
Good luck

Welcome reckless,

The 6 weeks will go quickly and it could be much worse. Many of us are waiting 5 months to get into a specialist. I hope you find a good PT and I"m so glad you found a PN aware physician.

Welcome to the group. Becoming educated about PN and being your own advocate is essential.
cari

helenlegs 11 wrote:Hi reckless, welcome
Here is a list of pelvic physios. I have no personal experience of any, sorry. http://www.pelvicphysiotherapy.com/Manu ... pists.html.
I have heard that Dr N Curran who works with Dr. Baranowski is an expert in pudendal nerve pain, http://www.pelvicphysiotherapy.com/Manu ... pists.html
I know that she offers a clinical examination and diagnosis but I am not sure if she does injections. Contact no,s are on the website , maybe you could ring and ask. I would expect you will get in earlier, maybe cheaper too. if she does do private practice that is, it's worth enquiring.
Dr Greenslade costs about £200 private consultation but that's a trip to Bristol.
Try not to sit too much, as this obviously exacerbates your symptoms, like most of us.
Good luck

Thanks a lot for this information!
Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but how does Pelvic Floor physiotherapy actually work?
Do you have to take your underwear off? Do they put their finger in your back passage? If that is the case then maybe I would prefer a male doctor....
Thanks

For men, they do go in your rectum. For women, it's vaginal.

Maybe some men on the forum can give more details....

cari

Reckless,
Pelvic floor problems are more common in women than men so for whatever reason you are much more likely to find women physiotherapists who have experience in this area. Internal work is done internally through the rectum for men but the experience is distinctly non-sexual. After 5 minutes whatever discomfort you may have have will pass. The main thing is to find some help.

Don

Reckless, there are some PT's discussed in a thread in the UK section of the forum. I think I heard Dr. Baranowski was working in conjunction with a PT now so you may be able to get the name from his office and hopefully you can give it a try during the time you are waiting to see Dr. B. Guys as well as women can have an orgasm-type feeling with pudendal neuralgia -- definitely not a comfortable feeling.

Weights are what messed me up too, but I wouldn't say you are stupid for what you did because most people can work out with weights and not have a problem. You probably have some musculoskeletal predisposition to pudendal neuralgia but how could you have know that before hand? Sounds like you've caught this problem early so your chances are good at recovery - just avoid anything that causes pain while you are seeking treatments.

Take care,

Violet

I've been giving myself a massage the last 3 days and feel a hell of a lot better! I would say I feel 60-70% better. The perineum pain has pretty much gone, no pain when urinating or going to the toilet, all that is left is some tightness. Looks like the tightness in the rectum area was causing the perineum pain and penile numbness. This explains why I always felt better when standing with my legs wide apart, things were just too tight. I can also sit down now, although I'm building this up slowly.

All this time I've had this pain and tightness and all I needed to do was a deep massage. I was really sore after the first massage which shows how tight I was.

I've got another week off until I go back to work I'm hoping a daily massage will get me back to 100% by the time I go back.