phisiotheraphy

[laura101]

I had symptoms of pudendal neuralgia for 5 months last year (pain in the genital area, burning, inability to sit, urinary symptoms). Then, little by little, without treatment, they went away except for some small symptoms that appeared from time to time. However, a lot of sensitivity in the area remained ( I could not touch the area if I did not want to have problems). My doctor had told me that my pudendal nerve was ok, that my problem was tight muscles. So, a week ago I decided to go to the phisiotherapist to end once and for all with this. It was not a painful session at all, the phisiotrerapist explored my vulva. But when she touched my clitoris I felt a burning and since then my symptoms are very high again. Can this be a symptom that something is wrong with my pudendal nerve? Do you think that she irritated my nerve?

[laura101]

Any help, please?

[stephanies]

Laura,

It is possible that your PT irritated the nerve. When my symptoms first began, I went many months with low level symptoms and even once the symptoms became constant, I did not touch certain areas because it would cause the pain to flare. Once, early on, I thought the pain had gone away completely and used an over the counter yeast cream that caused a huge pain increase due to the sensitivity of the skin in that area. Hopefully, your nerve, or whatever is causing your increase in symptoms, will soon settle back down.

Sincerely,
Stephanies

[laura101]

Thank you for your help.

So, I suppose that if a simple thing like touching my clitoris causes me all this burning is because something is wrong with my nerve....An irritated nerve can take months to go back to normal?

[stephanies]

Laura,

It all depends on what is going with you nerve and why it causing you sensitivity and discomfort. Hopefully if you are careful, it will heal over time. Are your symptoms limited to clitoral burning now or are they more widespread?

Stephanies

[Violet M]

Laura, how did your doctor determine the pudendal nerve was OK? If you have irritation just from the clitoris being touched then there must be some underlying problem because it's not normal to have residual pain just from being touched. If the pelvic floor muscles are in spasm/tense, that can irritate the nerve.

Did your PT check your pelvic floor muscles for tension and did they and press along the course of the pudendal nerve to see if there was any tenderness along the course of the nerve?

Violet

[laura101]

When my symptoms began last year, and after visiting a lot of doctors that said that there was nothing wrong with me, a doctor touched some muscles through my vagina and when he toched them the pain was terrible. So, he decided that my problem was tight mucles. He prescribed me lyrica but I could not tolerate it so I toke the pills less than a month.
A couple of months later, I went to another doctor that touched me deep inside the vagina the area of the pudendal nerve and I felt no pain at all. He told me that he thought that my pudendal nerve was ok and that maybe the muscles were a bit tight but that he did not know what was wrong with me. He told me that people do not have only tight muscles, that if they have tight muscles is because there is an underlying condition. He told me to try phisiotheraphy (to try something).
I decided not to do it and month after month I got better. I could spend weeks without any symptoms (using a donut cushion). But even when I had no symptoms I felt that my genital area was very sensitive and the simplest thing could make some symptoms to reapear.
Finally I decided to go to a physiotherapist who touched my muscles through the vagina and it was really painful (but I had no pain after the sessions). It seamed that I improved in the seatting aspect but not in the sensitivity issue. I was not convinced with her performance so I try another phisiotherapist. This one touched externally my genital area and I felt no pain except when she touched my clitoris, I felt an external burning in the clitoris that since then has spread in all the vulva (not in the anal area). My genital area is more oversensitive now. The first phisiotherapist told me that my muscles were tight but the second one told me that they were not tight because I felt no pain (however, the second one did not touch the muscles through the vagina like the first one).
So, I am very worried because the doctors say that the pudendal nerve is ok, the second phisiotherapist says that my muscles are not very tight and I do not know what is wrong. Is it possible that my pudendal nerve is not trapped but that I have some kind of problem in the branch that inervates the clitoris?

[Violet M]

That's really frustrating when your health care providers are telling you conflicting things. Yes, you can have just the clitoral branch of the nerve affected. You can also have neuralgia without an entrapment. Have you tried using anything locally such as a topical numbing ointment, and does that help?

Violet

[laura101]

I have not tried it. But the over sensitivity in my genital area makes me suspect that it is neuropatic pain, not tight muscles. Can tight muscles cause burning when your clitoris is touched? It sounds odd to me. Are there mucles in that area? What do you think?

[Violet M]

There are muscles surrounding the dorsal clitoral branch of the pudendal nerve and if they are tense or in spasm it could irritate the nerve and make it sensitive.