Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Need your thoughts. I'm seeing a PT not for my PN, but for lower back and hip pain exacerbated by a car accident. The PT is a manual PT. I've found that the movements/stretching the PT uses are causing major flares of my PN. Does anyone have suggestions on what stretches need to be avoided for those of us with PN?

Thanks for your help.

Don't bend from the hip to try to touch your toes. That's definitely a no-no. Any stretch that hurts your back or perineum while doing it should be avoided. Psoas stretches are good. You should take a look at Amy Stein's book on pelvic pain. She recommends a lot of stretching exercises, most of which work fine for me and do not aggravate the PN.

No bringing knees up to chest past 90°. No squatting. That pulls on pudendal nerves. For some, no core strengthening.

Emily B.

Thanks for your help.

It really varies from person to person. In my case, gentle toe touching and bringing the knee up to the chest can cause flare ups, but were also key to my recovery. Hyper-avoidance is not neccesarily a good thing. I think the trick is to try and understand the nerve; i.e How it is, what it wants, what it doesn't want etc. It's very tricky though.

Wow SkyBlue, I've been doing the "hyperavoidance" thing which really helped my pain. I'm really going to have to rethink this, as my goal is recovery. Thanks everyone for such good and thoughtful advice. I'll have to look into Amy Stein's book too; I was thinking of buying it and now it's good to hear it's helped some on this forum.