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What’s the difference between lower back pain, tailbone pain, and pain in your buttocks? Anatomically speaking, all three are connected – yet they’re wholly separate, and pain in any of the three areas can mean very various things. The tailbone is an actual bone, and because the name implies, it’s, in actual fact, an evolutionary remnant of our lost fifth limb. In case you’ve ever sat down on the sting of something just a little too fast or slid down a rail and felt an electrical pain run up your back from between your buttocks, you’ve felt tailbone pain.
This little remnant of our evolutionary blueprint is so ingrained within the human body that the common human embryo grows just a little tail when not more than a month old. As we mature within the womb, the tail becomes absorbed into the remaining of our body. It then becomes the coccyx, the underside capstone of the human spine.
Understanding the Function of Your Coccyx
The coccyx, or tailbone, is called after its shape – paying homage to the beak of a cuckoo bird – and it has an actual function, despite being not more than an inch long in most adult humans. It forms the center leg of a tripod that enables us to sit down more easily alongside the underside two parts of the hip, called the ischium. Imagine the hip as a triangle and not using a bottom line on the human spine’s base.
That is where the coccyx helps provide balance. It’s also attached to multiple different muscles within the hips and buttocks. Once we’re born, the coccyx and spine are mostly cartilaginous and separated. It only becomes bone as we age and at last solidifies with the sacrum into one articulate bone after puberty. Generally, we don’t sit on our hips and coccyx. We mostly sit on the muscle and fat of the buttocks, composed of multiple gluteal muscles.
But these bones provide the structure for the fashionable human being’s seat. Like many other parts of the human body, nonetheless, the coccyx can feel tremendous pain – often at its strongest when sitting down or defecating. Sometimes, this happens due to bone’s direct impact and surrounding nerve endings. Sometimes, it’s due to a special condition, including infection, tissue growth, or irritated ligaments. Tailbone pain can also be called coccydynia, or coccygodynia.
Tailbone Pain Symptoms vs. Lower Back Pain
One dead giveaway for tailbone pain is that the bottom of your spine hurts, between the buttocks, slightly than your lower back. Tailbone-specific pain doesn’t are likely to radiate, meaning you aren’t more likely to feel pain throughout the remaining of the pelvis, front of the hips, or up your back. Chances are you’ll also associate lower back pain with pain running down one leg (unilateral pain or sciatic pain) or pain in your other extremities.
One other sign that your pain originates within the tailbone slightly than the lower back is that your pain becomes more intense once you load the tailbone, for instance, by sitting down. Increased pain during menstruation, bowel movements, and sexual activity can also be an indication of a bruised, injured, or aching tailbone. Tailbone pain is usually related to physical trauma or injury, but it might probably turn out to be chronic or could also be related to chronic health problems. Chronic tailbone pain should be consistent for a minimum of three months before doctors consider it chronic pain.
Have I Hurt My Tailbone? Common Tailbone Pain Causes
The one surefire option to tell that your tailbone is the wrongdoer behind your pain and never one other a part of your hips or spine is to seek the advice of a medical skilled and receive each physical and imaging tests. For essentially the most part, women usually tend to injure their tailbone than men – at a rate of 5 to 1 -because pregnancy and labor strain the ligaments of the tailbone. Sometimes, this strain can result in injury, or the ligaments loosen enough to make injury in the realm more likely. Aging is one other factor – an increased risk of osteoarthritis also means an increased risk of tailbone pain.
In nearly all of cases, tailbone pain will not be very serious. In case you’ve fallen off some steps or a ladder onto your buttocks, for instance, you might have bruised your tailbone, which can take a couple of days to heal. Should the pain not go away, it could be since you’ve fractured your tailbone or suffered a more serious injury. In case your pain is severe or lasts greater than a couple of days, it is important to see a physician. Not all tailbone pain occurs after an injury or pregnancy. Tailbone pain can even result from an infection or, in some rare cases, a tumor pressing on the nerves across the bone.
Treating an Injured Tailbone
Your doctor will recommend a special, individualized treatment plan depending on whether you’ve gotten chronic or acute pain and the origin of your coccydynia. For instance, generally, just a little physical rest, some anti-inflammatory pain meds, and maybe a singular pillow to maintain pressure off the realm when sitting could also be enough to mediate the pain until the realm heals. In other, more severe cases, your doctor may recommend stronger medication or a coccygeal nerve block, cutting off all pain signals from the realm to the brain via an injected analgesic drug.
Lying in your belly with a heated pad in your tailbone can assist relieve pain, as does adjusting your posture. Attempt to lean forward along with your torso as you sit down, bend your back against the backrest of your chair or sofa and keep your feet flat on the bottom and away from you. In case you sit loads at work, your doctor may recommend a standing desk or a supportive pillow. Along with medication and native injections, your doctor may recommend a massage and even transcutaneous nerve stimulation applied to the realm around your tailbone. This treatment method sends electric signals into your body, targeting the nerves across the tailbone and temporarily interfering with pain signals.
