Fed Up with Pelvic Floor Muscle Spasm Symptoms?
Muscle spasms in your pelvic floor can be downright frustrating. They can lead to pain all around the pelvic area, including the vagina, and even in the lower back. Often, pelvic floor spasms are a type of pelvic floor dysfunction known as vaginismus.
What is Pelvic Floor Spasm?
Pelvic floor spasm is a common cause of pelvic pain that involves involuntary contractions of the pelvic floor muscles, which support the uterus, vagina, bladder and rectum. It’s quite similar to the kind of cramping you’d experience in another body part, like your calf or foot, and it can be very painful. Essentially, the muscles in the pelvic floor are tight and over-working – the opposite issue of weak pelvic floor muscles.
Symptoms of Pelvic Muscle Spasms
There are several symptoms typically associated with this type of pelvic floor dysfunction. Some of the most common pelvic floor spasm symptoms include:
- Ongoing pain or discomfort in the pelvic region that can spread to the lower back and abdomen
- Pain during urination, often a burning sensation
- Difficulty urinating or a slow urination stream
- Frequent urination
- Constipation or difficulty passing stool during bowel movements
- Painful sex (dyspareunia)
These symptoms can often feel like a bad UTI or bladder infection, but if it’s a case of this particular pelvic floor dysfunction, tests will not reveal any infection. Instead, chronic pelvic pain is instead one of the telltale pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms - along with the others listed above.
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Causes of These Vaginal Spasms
It can be tricky to find the underlying cause of many pelvic floor disorders, including this one. However, often it can be caused by vaginal childbirth, undergoing an episiotomy (perineal cut) during childbirth, high-impact exercise or activity, surgery, or another medical issue like endometriosis, vulvodynia, and more. It can also be due to psychological factors, which is a condition known as vaginismus.
How Can I Treat Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?
Luckily, there are a few really easy ways to manage the symptoms of this type of pelvic floor dysfunction.
Try vaginal trainers or dilation therapy
To help relax your pelvic and vaginal muscles, you might want to try vaginal dilation therapy. Using a silicone vaginal dilator works to gently relax your pelvic muscles and slowly stretch the area. This can help with the pain associated with pelvic floor spasm, as it can help the muscles learn to relax and return to their resting state instead of being held in a tightened position.
Control penetration during intercourse
These spasms often cause painful sex, or dyspareunia. Using a tool like the Ohnut, you can control penetration during sex and choose how deep you’d like your partner or toy to go. We also recommend using the Ohnut with a natural lubricant to make penetration even easier.
Comfort your pelvic area
When you’re experiencing the pain associated with pelvic floor spasm, delivering some much-needed warmth to your pelvic area can soothe the discomfort of this pelvic floor dysfunction and other associated pelvic floor disorders. Using Intimate Rose’s patented temperature therapy pelvic wand can help to address overly tight pelvic floor muscles to improve flexibility of the muscles for comfort during penetration. This is the only wand available that combines ergonomic shape with soothing temperature therapy.
Getting help and support
We also recommend speaking to your doctor, who can discuss other treatment options like physiotherapy. A specialized physiotherapist might help with treating pelvic floor dysfunction through pelvic floor physical therapy and assist with supporting your pelvic muscles to work properly again. If you’re looking for a professional who specializes in pelvic floor health, search for a member of the Pelvic Health Network to get information about pelvic health specialists in your area.
