Stretching and strengthening the muscles of your lower back and pelvis.Taking stool softeners to reduce pain during bowel movements.Using a wedge-shaped gel cushion or coccygeal cushion (a “donut” pillow) when sitting.Taking a hot bath to relax muscles and ease pain.Taking a NSAID like ibuprofen to reduce pain and swelling.Of those who do require treatment, 90% just need to use at-home remedies.Īt-home remedies for tailbone pain (coccydynia) include: Most people recover without undergoing any sort of treatment. How is coccydynia (tailbone pain) treated? Tailbone pain is typically worse when a woman is menstruating. Does menstruation cause tailbone pain (coccydynia)? Yes, chronic coccydynia is one of the causes of rectal pain. Can tailbone pain (coccydynia) cause rectal pain? Is tailbone pain (coccydynia) a sign of pregnancy?Īs the fetus grows, its weight does put pressure on your pelvic space, causing pain in that general area. Other related symptoms that may occur with coccydynia include: More severe pain when sitting for long periods of time.More severe pain when changing from sitting to standing up.What are the symptoms of tailbone pain (coccydynia)? Only in rare cases is tailbone pain a sign of cancer. Better yet, find yourself a softer, more comfortable place to sit or use a cushioned seat. Do your best to get up often, stretch and take a short walk. Just this simple act can increase coccyx pain, especially if you’re sitting on a hard or narrow surface. If you don’t have enough fat in your buttocks to prevent your coccyx from rubbing against the muscles, ligaments and tendons, that can cause. Your tailbone will hurt if it is out of position. This can cause the coccyx to lean backward. Such a strain on those soft tissues keeps them from supporting your coccyx at the correct angle.Įxtra weight applies additional pressure to the coccyx. This is a natural process but, unfortunately, such movement may stretch the muscles and ligaments around the coccyx too far, causing additional pain. This enables the coccyx to move as necessary during childbirth. Too much of that repeated motion can strain the tissues around your coccyx.ĭuring the third trimester of pregnancy, a woman’s body secretes hormones that soften the area between the sacrum and the coccyx. Sports like bicycling and rowing require you to lean back and forth and stretch your spine. If you take a really bad fall you can bruise, break (fracture) or dislocate (knock out of place) your tailbone (coccyx). Or, maybe you were leaning too far back in your office chair and took a tumble. Who hasn’t fallen backwards onto their behind? Maybe your feet slipped out from under you on the ice. You’re also more vulnerable if you lose weight too quickly. Obese persons are three times more susceptible than those at the ideal weight according to the BMI (Body Mass Index) scale. Adults and adolescents get it more often than children. Women are five times more likely than men to develop coccydynia. How common is tailbone pain (coccydynia)? Interestingly, for one-third of those with coccydynia, the cause is unknown. Internal Trauma: Trauma caused by a difficult childbirth or from sitting on a narrow or hard surface for too long.External Trauma: A bruised, broken or dislocated coccyx caused by a fall.There are three types of events that cause tailbone pain: It can last for weeks, months or sometimes longer. Tailbone pain ranges from a dull ache to a fierce stab. Two-thirds of adults have a coccyx that curves a bit instead of pointing straight down, but one that is curved too far is abnormal and, therefore, painful. Both the coccyx and the ischial tuberosities (two bones that make up the bottom of your pelvis) bear your weight when you sit down. Several tendons, muscles and ligaments connect to it. It lies beneath the sacrum, a bone structure at the base of your spine. Your coccyx is made up of three to five fused vertebrae (bones).
“Dynia” means “pain,” and so “coccydynia” literally means “pain of the coccyx.” And because the bone corresponds to the location of an animal’s tail, it’s called the “tailbone.” What is the tailbone/coccyx? The term “coccyx” comes from the Greek word for “cuckoo” as it resembles a bird’s beak with the tip pointed down. Tailbone pain, called “coccydynia,” is pain in and around the small triangular bone at the very bottom of your spinal column, above the cleft of your buttocks. The coccyx, located below the sacrum, can be severely damaged in a fall What is tailbone pain (coccydynia)?