Just looking for advice

[PatS92]

Hi everybody,

I'm just looking for some advice/opinions on what I'm experiencing. I should start by saying that I have NOT been diagnosed with PN, and at this point I have not even mentioned it to my doctor. However, I came across this condition while Googling my symptoms (not a good idea).

I am a 23 year old male. Back in March of this year, I started having little twinges of anal/rectal pain. The pains tended to bounce around each time I experienced them.They would last for a second or two, and then I'd be back to normal. This would occur several times a day. I went to see a colorectal specialist, who diagnosed me with an anal fissure after a digital rectal exam. I tried the normal treatment for that but I kept having those little pains. After a month of frustration, I visited the same Dr. office and spoke to a different Dr. He did another exam and told me that he didn't see a fissure. He said the pain I was experiencing was from proctalgia fugax. He assured me that it's a benign condition but there isn't really anything that can be done to treat it. I went through the month of April and part of May still experiencing these occasional twinges of pain, but tried not to think much of it. Then in the middle of May I just stopped experiencing the pains all of a sudden. Woo hoo! That was all fine and dandy until July rolled in, and they started up again out of the blue. I went to see my general practitioner and explained to him what my diagnosis was, and he seemed to agree with it. He prescribed me some calcium channel blockers and said they may help reduce the frequency/severity of the pain. Since taking these, I *think* they have been somewhat effective, but the pain is so quick that it's hard to tell.

My question is, does this sound like PN to anybody on here? I read on this site that PN can often be misdiagnosed as proctalgia fugax, so I wanted to ask around. I want to emphasize a few things: The pain is extremely quick and once it's done I feel completely normal. I've had it occur when I'm sitting, standing, and lying down. I work an office job and I am able to sit for long periods of time if I have to. The pain doesn't get worse or better throughout the day, it's just about the same each time it happens.

I am open to any thoughts regarding this issue. Cheers!

[April]

Pat,

I’m fairly new to pn, so the veterans can give more experienced answers, but it doesn’t really sound like pn to me. In my experience (with pn in the perineal branch) it is a fairly constant burning and needling pain that's really only relieved with a bag of ice and/or lying down for a long time. But (consistent with what you described) the exact location of the pain does move around a bit, though it’s always along that branch. If your pain is in your rectum, it sounds like the pn would be in the rectal branch. But, I think people with that type of pn have painful bowel movements. Have you read the diagnostic articles on this site? Those were very helpful to me as I tried to figure out if I had pn. Here are two that I found helpful:

http://www.pudendalhope.info/sites/defa ... Hibner.pdf
http://www.pudendalhope.info/sites/defa ... iteria.pdf

April