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There are no specific tests for muscle pain or MPS, it is diagnosed by exam.
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Because these muscles surround the bladder and bowel, pelvic floor MPS can also cause the need to empty your bladder a lot and urgency (difficulty holding your urine) as well as pain with or after bowel movements. Everyone has a unique pain experience, so descriptions certainly vary. Frequently I hear it described as the feeling of “a bowling ball” or a “fist” in the vagina.” I have also heard it described as “my insides are coming out.” Some women say it is a squeezing or a cramping sensation. Muscle pain can be very severe and is often (but not always) worse with physical activity (including sex). The spasms cause severe pain by reducing blood flow and squeezing nerves.Īfter a c-section, this kind of myofascial pain syndrome can affect the belly wall or it can affect the muscles of the pelvic floor (those are the muscles that you squeeze to stop your flow of urine and the muscles that contract during orgasm). It happens when (for whatever reason) a muscle tenses and contracts too much, forming tight bands (ever felt a knot of muscle in your neck? That is the kind of tight band or knot that happens with MPS, except with MPS the knot won’t go away). The formal medical term for this kind of muscle pain is myofascial pain syndrome, or MPS for short. Throw in the hormonal changes of pregnancy and delivery as well as the lack of sleep and the stress of caring for a newborn and you have many of the ingredients for a chronic pain condition. Muscle pain can happen spontaneously however, it can also be triggered by trauma (like surgery or childbirth). Muscle pain is actually the most common cause of chronic pain overall. The two main causes of post c-section pain are nerve pain (covered here) and muscle pain. It’s really so very sad, because many times the treatments are not very hard. they don’t get an answer until they’ve been referred to me). Although I suppose I shouldn’t be, because I see women with chronic pain every day and it takes years for most to get an answer (i.e. I am really surprised by the number of hits I get from people trying to find out more about chronic pain post c-section.