Tailbone Pain

Your tailbone can begin hurting after something as mundane as sitting on a hard chair or other uncomfortable areas for extended periods of time. Falls, injuries, and traumas can also bruise, dislocate, or fracture a tailbone, resulting in pain.

Joint injury from repetitive movement or wear and tear with aging can also result in tailbone pain. During a final pregnancy trimester, the ligaments attached to and surrounding the coccyx naturally loosen to make space for a baby which can cause tailbone pain as well.

Persons who are obese or overweight are more prone to tailbone issues. Conversely, losing excessive weight too quickly can lose the tissue insulation and protection around the tailbone, which can result in tailbone pain. Moreover, in rare instances, an infection or tumor can result in tailbone pain.

You should consult your doctor if the pain is intense or stays for more than a few days. In most cases, tailbone pain isn’t a serious issue. The pain can be indicative of any injury or lower back disease, and as mentioned earlier, in very rare cases it could indicate cancer or tumor as well.

Your doctor will collect your history and conduct a physical exam. He or she will then ask for an X-ray or MRI scan to check for signs of injury like any bone fractures or a tumor compressing the bone. X-ray images can be taken both while sitting and standing to demonstrate possible issues with your tailbone in various positions.

Over-the-counter medications

The pain can take a few days, weeks or months to heal as the tailbone injury resolves on its own. You can use over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to alleviate your pain until the tailbone heals.

For more intense pain, your doctor can provide a local anesthetic, nerve block, steroidal medication or a combination of the three that can be injected in the affected area. You can also use antidepressants or anti-seizure medication orally to relieve the pain.

Sitting position

To help with the pain, sitting on a heat or ice pack can help. Poor posture can add too much pressure on the tailbone. You should sit while leaning against the back of a chair with your feet flat on the ground to get the load off your coccyx. Lean forward while sitting on a specially designed donut-shaped pillow or wedge-shaped cushion so that your lower back can feel more comfortable.

Physical therapy

Physiotherapy can help you take part in exercises to improve your muscle strength and support your coccyx. The stomach muscles and pelvic floor muscles are the main targets for this therapy. You can also use a method known as tailbone manipulation in which a doctor inserts a gloved finger into the rectum to move the coccyx back and forth to set it back in the right position.

Surgery

Surgery is usually a last-ditch effort to deal with the pain since most of the above-mentioned therapies and treatments usually do the trick. In case they don’t work, your doctor can advise a surgery known as coccygectomy as a last resort to resect part of or the whole tailbone. Surgery usually takes time before the pain can subside and it can be ineffective in other cases as well.

Surgery also comes with risks such as infection, and that’s why it is imperative to take all procedures, risks, and treatments into consideration before choosing surgery. Begin with traditional pain-relief treatments like NSAIDs, heat, and massages. If your tailbone still hurts, get checked by the proper professionals at Pillars of Wellness so you can find a treatment that works for you.