🌱Many women with vulvar pain have hypertonic (overactive) pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.
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🌱The muscles that make up the “floor of the pelvis” (the pubococcygeus, puborectalis, and the transverse perinei muscles), which come together at the bottom of the vestibule (4-8 o’clock on the vaginal opening), can become tight and tender.
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🌱It is one of the most common contributors to vestibulodynia and often occurs with other forms of vulvar and pelvic pain.
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🌱These muscles affect the bowel, bladder, hips, lower back, and vulva. Women often blame symptoms of tight pelvic floor on infections, like chronic yeast or urinary tract infections, even interstitial cystitis. Often the cultures are all negative and this causes increased anxiety, increased discomfort, and increased tightness.
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🌱It is possible to break the pain cycle of tight pelvic floor muscles… but it involves a proper diagnosis and identifying contributing factors.
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🌸 I feel that evaluation of the pelvic floor should be standard in a gynecologic exam, and essential in women with pelvic and vulvar pain.