Rectum issues

[Ashley2486]

Does PN cause issues with your rectum? I feel like I cannot push to have a bowel movement. It almost feels like my muscles are too tight and I can't push them. Could this be caused by the nerve or just tight rectal muscles? I am really afraid. My bowel movements have been really thin too almost like they don't have much room to get out of my anus. Has anyone experienced this? My PT doesn't think I have PN but she did find some trigger points in my buttocks muscles. She suggested trying dry needling.

[Violet M]

The pudendal nerve innervates the anal sphincter and yes, it can affect your BM's. If the pudendal nerve is the issue (and I'm not saying for sure it is in your case), that leads you to the chicken and egg question which has been asked many times on this forum. Which comes first, the tight muscles that irritate the nerve, or a damaged nerve that causes the muscles to tighten up? It's not always easy to answer that question.

Violet

[Ashley2486]

Violet,
If the nerve was damaged and causing the muscles to tighten, would there be pain first? I can see how tight muscles irritating the nerve would lead to pain, but if the nerve was damaged before the tight muscles, would there be pain right away or not until the muscles have tightened? Does that make sense?

[Violet M]

Yes, a damaged nerve or a nerve that is irritated or compressed between ligaments that can lead to pain and cause you to tighten up your muscles. At least that's what happened to me.

Violet

[Ashley2486]

Violet,
Was your nerve impinged right away or did it become impinged as you started stretching in PT? Did you have pain with sitting right away when you noticed your symptoms?

[Violet M]

Ashley, my symptoms progressed slowly over time but after I started stretching, they progressed rather suddenly. Originally I was weightlifting doing lunges and squats and two months into that I started having mild pain. At first when the pain was mild I didn't have problems with sitting. I didn't know any better so I just kept exercising until it became too painful. I developed chronically strained pelvic ligaments with pelvic misalignment and pain primarily on one side. My understanding based on what my doctors and PT told me, and what I've read in the literature, is that the nerve was compressed between the ligaments causing the initial pain and that stretching just irritated the nerve more because it couldn't glide freely.

Violet

[Ray P.]

Ashley mine are thin also. I take Senna so I go between soup and thin. I have in the back of my mind that one day it will just close up.

[Ashley2486]

Ray,
My issues are on and off. Just last week I was feeling better and had nice solid bowel movements... Now this week they are soft and small, some of thinner side. Idk if this is caused by PFD or if I have PN. I feel like most of my issues are just PFD. If I had pn would it be on and off like that? Or would it be consistent?

[Ray P.]

What is PFD?
I do not have any answers to your questions. My BM are not always the same. I feel if I had normal size stools like everyone else I would not be able to handle them and probably end up with fissures. My little ones feel like big logs coming out. LOL

[Ashley2486]

PFD is pelvic floor dysfunction. Where the pelvic floor muscles are either too tight or too loose. In my case, my obturtator internus muscle is tight. I believe that is the cause of all my issues. My question was would it be on and off like that? One week i'll have normal sized bowel movements and they are fine, no pain. Then the following week i'll have small, thin bowel movements that hurt and feel like big logs coming out as you put it... or diarrhea...