Antibiotic use triggered Pudendal Neuralgia?

[Violet M]

You may want to pursue more diagnostics to rule out any underlying problem that might have been triggered when you took the antibiotic, or whatever you were taking the antibiotic for. Typically, when you have burning pain, it is suggestive of something neurological and your physician will agree to ordering an MRI to rule out anything obvious in the spine that could be causing it. So that might be one place to start. You may also want to have an evaluation by a pelvic floor PT to see if there is anything musculoskeletal contributing to the pain. They can evaluate your pelvic floor and press on the pudendal nerve via the rectum to see if the nerve is tender or if there is pelvic floor tension. For me it was a PT who figured out the correct diagnosis.

In the meantime, while you are going through this, you can try pain relieving measures and lifestyle changes temporarily. Avoiding activities that flare up the pain for a bit could help. If you exercise heavily, you could scale back and give things a rest. There are medications to relieve burning pain, although I am sure you are shy of medications after what seems to have started this problem for you. But medications made a big difference to me in helping me get through the worst of this journey. Some suggestions for meds that help people with PN are at the following link: https://www.pudendalhope.info/medication-management/

You can check out more ideas for diagnostics and treatments from our homepage at https://www.pudendalhope.info/.

All the best,

Violet

[irpla223]

Hi there,

I took Metronidazole (Pylera) for Helicobacter Pylori and never had such issues before, M33 from Germany.

Now I suffer since them from slight neuropathy at different regions. At first I had sciatic issues, but those are gone by now. Unfortunately now the neuropathy at the pelvic region becomes more pronounced. Especially after a nerve conduction measurement done at the neurologist.

Symptoms:
- Urination is more difficult to start
- Tingling/Vibrational feeling in pelvic area
- This tingling/vibrations become more pronounced when sitting and also throughout the day
- Symptoms worse when constipated

I already had a MRI to rule out a herniated disk at the lower back. Additionally there was also a MRI done for the pelvic region.

Could one see a slight entrapment of the sciatic/pudendal nerve there?

Can you recommend special exercises?

Thanks a lot,

Kind regards

[Violet M]

Could one see a slight entrapment of the sciatic/pudendal nerve there?

Can you recommend special exercises?

MRI's sometimes show an entrapment but not always. There are some MRI's that use special software settings to make a pudendal nerve entrapment show up better.

I think you would need to see a physical therapist for exercise recommendations. What they recommend would depend on what they find on doing an assessment.

Violet

[Dana317]

It was oniy after antibiotics that I came down with my PN condition. I always wonder if that was it because nothing else happened. No surgeries,
accidents, etc. Obviously I will never know for certain but its the only thing I can think of. Went to so many doctors trying to figure out what I had
(and almost every one of them put me on more antibiotics thinking it had to be some type of UTI or yeast infection) After finding a doctor who diagnosed me with PN, I was put on Gabapentin which absolutely helped. Along the way I had great success with physiotherapy, PEA, ALA and tumeric supplements, water aerobics, walking, a good seat cushion. It has been a year and a half since the pain started and I am now pretty much (99%) pain free. And I've been able to come down from 600mg of Gabapentin (daily) to 100mg. Won't be long before I'm off completely! I am so thankful to God for helping me find the right tools to help me get back to the me before this all began. Pray you find what works for you as well

[capricorn91]

...

Hello, I also remember antibiotics causing severe PN symptoms for me in the past as well. Although i can't remember specifically which antibiotic it was. I had severe PN pain that started suddenly whilst taking antibiotics.

My PN symptoms eventually went away when i stopped the antibiotic, but it was a very slow and painful process. It took about six weeks with the pain gradually getting less and less over time. Eventually my pudendal nerve recovered completely after stopping the antibiotics.

However, a couple of years later i developed chronic bladder pain and urgency and one year later pgad symptoms and six years later i developed pudendal neuralgia when i abruptly stopped taking amitriptyline.

I personally feel that my condition is a pudendal nerve entrapment, although i've not yet been diagnosed. I also feel that my condition may also have been caused by sitting down too much and from the medications and maybe some predisposition to the condition as well.

...

[Broken2]

Update. I don't know if my case was actually PN or whatever else. Doctors can't tell. Surely there has been a neural damage by fluoroquinolones confirmed by an orthopedician. As a fact, following a further course of cypro I had to take forcibly last Winter in few days I developed chronic pain in my left shoulder, right foot plus worsening of my supposed PN/rectal pain.
But the good new is that a proctologist last May prescribed me topical applications of Diltiazem (here I had it compounded by a pharmacy because no topical formulations exist). People, in a matter of few days the pain improved by 50% and after few weeks it is pretty GONE !!!!!

[Violet M]

Thanks for sharing that great news, Broken2. There was a time you had no hope but I am excited to hear you are doing so well!

Violet

[jaxi123]

How can Diltiazem help PN pain if it is for high blood pressure and chest pain??

[Violet M]

Topical diltiazem ointment is often used for anal fissures. Not sure how it would work for PN but maybe it would if your PN pain was primarily anal?