Hi,Last night I suddenly became unwell whilst I was trying to sleep. I got pain in my rectum which was very intense and radiates through my pelvis, I had to keep moving around as it is so horrible. I have had this pain a few times before, sometimes at night and sometimes after a bowel movement, but this time I felt like I was going to be sick and felt like I was going to pass out, I even think I was crying out in pain but couldn't quite hear myself as my ears had gone muffled as well. It really scared me and I really don't want to experience it again.
Has anyone else experience this as I am trying to understand what it is?
I suffer with slow transit colon, have a small enterocele and rectocele, I currently take prucalopride, movicol and nortriptyline, I will be starting irrigation too, which worries me due to the rectum pain attacks.
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Orchid99
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I have a similar pain sometimes. I can go months in between episodes or sometimes only a week apart. The pain I get feels like it is just inside my rectum. Like a vein or something being blocked or under pressure. It’s quite a localised pain, always in the same place. Whilst I haven’t done so, it feels like I could insert my finger into my rectum to touch the point of pain. It starts mild, then builds to a peak before subsiding. It can vary in intensity with one episode being ‘uncomfortable’ to as you describe, it making me feel nauseous and about to pass out often with a cold sweat. It only tends to last a few minutes. I also have to walk about and massage the area to try to reduce the discomfort. I have been to the doctor who suggested a muscle cramping, but that’s not what I would expect it to feel like. So like you, I haven’t found an answer to it yet. I don’t have any diagnosed issues with my rectum, but your post describes my pain exactly.
This is almost certainly proctalgia fugax. It's due to muscle spasms around the anus or in the pelvic floor (the general syndrome is called levator ani syndrome). It can be intensely painful but it usually doesn't last long enough to make painkillers effective. It seems to happen mostly at night and is painful enough to rouse the sufferer, even in its initial phase. The pain increases and then finally subsides as the spasm passes. Moving around or applying pressure on the area can help and some people say a bowel movement relieves the pain. I heard that one doctor suggested pressing one of those ornamental marble eggs against the anus - but be careful with that 😑!
hi I suffered from the same thing for years , and no doctor could give me an answer, but I eventually found one who gave me the answer, you are suffering from Levator ani syndrome, you can actually google this , my doctor told me to sit on a tennis ball that’s placed on the rectum and wiggle around the ball , hope this helps , it nothing serious that you have to worry about .
Well it probably will happen again , I have had it for over 20 yrs , and it always happens at night when I’m sleeping, it actually wakes me up, it’s horrible
With all those added symptoms apart from the pain, I think to be on the safe side you maybe should check this with your doctor.
But, I wonder if that could be "Proctalgia Fugax". I do get that from time to time and had it since about 2005, way before I developed IBS.
It is a really VERY horrible pain, and it seems to spread through the pelvis somehow but is based in the anal area. One the pain 1 - 10 scale it rates about 8 or 9. It can come any time, night or day, sometimes during a pleasant walk, and sometimes waking me up at night. There isn't even time to take a painkiller and for it to work, because the intense pain goes away usually within 20 minutes.
All I can do is endure. Nothing helps, not massage of the tummy or a hot drink or relaxing, breathing nicely and the like. The only thing I have found to ease it is a shot of an alcoholic drink. That works quickly, whereas a painkiller could take 30 minutes to an hour to take effect.
Otherwise, I know it will pass very soon, and so I just wait, and literally roll around on the floor (or in bed if it's night time.)
Then it fades away gradually and when it's gone it's completely gone! Mine only comes back from time to time.
I think it's a muscle spasm in the pelvic floor muscles.
I am not meaning to "diagnose" you. Check with your doctor, which is what I did all those years ago and was told what it was (for me anyway)
But all I got was the pain. I didn't get the other symptoms. But maybe that's because you and I are different and have different responses to pain?
What you have described sounds very much like it, I believe it's been since I had my hysterectomy. I have had it a few times this year, but not with the additional symptoms on top. Maybe it set of a vagus nerve response to the pain.
If it is proctalgia fugax, it's known for being extremely painful, and also totally benign at the same time ! Its "hallmark" is intense anal pain which passes completely in the shortest time (mine takes about 20 minutes), and no pain between occasional random bouts of it.
It makes sense that it could be a vagal nerve reaction to the pain which causes the other symptoms that go with it for you.
But if you're worried etc, best to check with a doctor if you can, just to be sure.
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