I have had the odd attack since and I am still waiting for the specialist appt that the GP set up back in March!! Hope it’s nothing serious!! Recently I had become a bit concerned because I was getting an ache up there which seemed like the start of an attack but didn’t proceed to that. It was also on and off “during the day”. Slightly concerned at this development but after about a week of this I had another attack one night which a slightly longer bath sorted and ironically the daytime “feeling” passed. It’s all most odd.
Some updates. I am pleased to say that the frequency of PF has diminished greatly since my mid-50s. I’m now 61. I have no idea why.
As for doctors, my (former) GP had no interest at all when I mentioned it, even providing her with a probable diagnosis. I think that it’s a function of today’s messed up health care system where doctors can only spend 10 minutes per patient. If it’s not life-threatening, they can’t be bothered. (They must also be weary of internet-educated patients bringing them maladies they’ve never heard of.)
The dehyrdation theory is interesting and might even correlate with my theory of mild constipation being a contributor. Dehydration contributes to constipation.
Finally, I think it makes sense that it could be triggered by ejaculation (though most of my episodes woke me in the middle of the night) because there is a tendency to clench the anal sphincter during ejaculation. So I try to keep that in the back of my mind. You can consciously relax at that moment, and I’d even recommend it in general!
It’s pretty clear that PF needs to be treated for the muscle spasm that it is. Whatever alleviates spasm is going to help. That’s the common thread here, even though what works best for me (the hot bath) is not necessarily what works best for someone else.
I have been having severe anal cramp for the best part of 20 years and have even passed out a few times with the pain. for some reason it seems to happen more during the night.
On one occasion I was awakened by the severe pain and I was heading to get a pain killer but thought I had better not as I had to use my stairs . i did not want to pass out and fall down the stairs so decided to go back to bed.
I lay on my bed and for 5 to 10 minutes taking very deep slow breaths through my nose filling my lungs to max and after 5 to 10 minutes the pain was gone .
This seems to work for me , I do hope it helps others.
j
Really interesting to read all the comments on this thread.
I’m 52 and have been suffering from PF for at least 20 years or so. As mentioned previously in the comments the intense pain occurs mainly during the night and occasionally during the day and comes on without any warning the time period of pain can vary. On several (3 times, I think) occasions I have have got out of bed to seek some sort of remedy and have fainted.
I have sought medical advice and the doctor didn’t know what it was and was not much help. This is the first useful information I have found on PF. I have as other contributors have mentioned linked it to dehydration. I mountain bike a lot and walk longish distances and these occurrences of PF correlate.
One contributor mentioned electrolytes and I am going to give these a go.
After suffering in silence it’s good to know I’m not alone. Cheers
I believe I also suffer from PF. I use to lay in bed with severe pain for hours. About two years ago I started taking ibuprofen at the onset. After about 10 minutes the pain went away. I realized about a year ago it happens when I’m dehydrated. Now I drink a large glass of water when the pain starts and it goes away within minutes.
hello everyone. im a 40 yr old male who has dealt with PF since i was a kid. ive only ever been able to describe the pain to my wife as if u were hanging by your rear by a meat hook. its intense, sharp and relentless. always happens at night and i have passed out once from the excrutiating pain. i read it here on someones reply and i wanted
to confirm that i believe 99.9% that it is caused from a dehydration issue. i live in the south east u.s. where its super humid and im fairly active outdoors so i sweat and perspire a lot. i went to a doctor years ago who thought the pain was a spasm and it got me thinking about cramps that you get when dehydrated. once i started being very conscious about my water intake… the PF pain all but stopped… no joke. i still get the pain, in fact it happened last night, but every time i do have an episode, i recap my previous days water intake only to find out that i was slack that day and i brought it on myself. my routine is drinking one last tall glass of water before i lay down. might make you have to pee in the middle of the night but ill take that over a PF episode ANY day. im truly convinced it is a hydration thing. if you are suffering from PF its worth a shot to monitor your water intake… it could be an easy fix for something that no one seems to have a medical answer for. they say that the human body is about 60% water. you start depleting yourself of that and bad things can happen. be blessed and i hope this helps someone.
Thank you to all who posted on this - we are not alone, we are not crazy. I am a 55 year old woman who has had 2 episodes of PF, which is excruciating and debilitating when it occurs. Like the others, both times I felt a little constipated as if having a BM would resolve it but it I was unable to at the time. One episode occurred in the afternoon after arriving for the evening shift at work. I sat in the bathroom breaking out in a drenching sweat from the pain, until it passed. The other occured in the afternoon post colonoscopy (routine screening)/ EGD for indigestion, earlier that day. I was likely dehydrated at the second episode. I broke out in a drenching sweat again from the pain, and pressed on the area and all I could do was lie down in bed for 10-15 minutes until it passed. I will try a hot washcloth and muscle relaxer next time. Thank you so much. We are not alone.
This past year this has recently started happening to me as well. You’re right about the hot baths. I’ve found a friend who also has this. He said that a ER nurse happened to overhear him talking about his condition and told him to get his heart checked out (his vagal nerve), He found out it was his Vagal nerve. Of course I’ve had no luck figuring out what’s causing mine but it’s interesting that she knew right away what it was causing it.
hi there fellow sufferers
came across this forum and woul like to recommend my saviour;
have suffered with PF for nearly forty years and one day i read about the good old asthma pump being used by someone with the same problem.
As soon as i realise an attack is coming on i take three puffs and it does not escalate and calms my bottom and pelvis area down.
Hers in the UK its called a Ventolin inhaler, pls give it a try; ive been major attack free for last fifteen yrs…
i too suffer from this painful issue. I read on a forum (sorry i cant remember where) this fix. The first thing is take a buscapan tablet then i sit on the very edge of the loo seat (lift up the lid), the cold pressure right on the edge pressing on the anus really helps me. Normally the cramp/pain passes in about 5 minutes.. you could do this on the edge of the bath, we don’t have a bath unfortunately. I think its the cold of the porcelain that helps maybe? Anyway it really helps me, this always happens at night and wakes me up. I hope it helps someone else.
I have suffered from PF since i was 11 im now 54 so I’m something of a veteran.
when I get an attack there is no way or time for me to run a bath, take a tablet etc… I feel like I’m dying.
After 40 plus years the only thing that shortens an attack for me is to sit on the hardest surface possible and rock around on the boney area of the coccyx. I’ve literally tried every single remedy I have ever seen on the patient forums but this is the only one that helps.
Love and support to every one of you that suffers from this horrible affliction only we know how it feels.
I have also noticed that being dehydrated massively contributes to an attack.
I’m 37 male, slim and healthy. I had PF since childhood when it continued to be a pain
I also suffer from abdominal migraine that also started in childhood and I still suffer both.
I have a family history of PF, so the family was not quite surprised.
Attacks:
Sharp electric pain in the rectum, where I get that feeling when I need to poop.
Lasts from 5 to 20 minutes normally. Few times that reached an hour.
Predisposing factors:
The frequency of attacks are variable from few times in a week to 4-6 times in a year.
Stress (lack of sleep, emotional stress) and abdominal migraine are usually more frequent during that week.
Attacks are more common with cold weather or if I used cold water to clean after a poop.
My triggers:
- Sexual arousal: worse if ejaculation happens, the better orgasm the worse the pain or if got interrupted and congested.
- Moderate constipation: usually I feel the pain coming before BM & much worse when bowel open. Passing wind relieves a bit though.
- Sleep: most of attacks come when I’m drifting to sleep.
Relief:
- Hot water: bath or pointing shower head to the area till the pain has subsided completely. It helps to sooth the pain and can abort the attack commonly.
- Ibuprofen (liquid): helps more with the attacks that lasts longer than 10 minutes.
- Loperamide (instant): helps some long attacks to resolve.
- Run in place: No one fancies a run in the middle of the night, but if I tried all and didn’t work, I run in place to get a short break. Pain occasionally returns if I stop.
What did’t work:
I tried liquid Potassium, oral Nitroglycerine but no great effect
Because of the sharp short term nature it’s hard to know which specific technique that worked. because I probably try everything like a mad person at the time.
Many thanks for everyone who shared their experience. I’ll definitely try new advice from the forum, e.g. hydration, long deep breathing, chewing Aspirin, internal local anaesthetic, sitting on a solid surface and pressure.
I’m currently laying in a hot bathtub (1+ hour so far)…pain now at 4/10 – vs 9/10 when I was woken up with PF again today.
This is the 4th “major” time this has happened to me. All of the major times have occurred within the last 6 months. I’ve had milder occurrences for many years and can feel them occuring typically before extreme pain (while awake) and have learned to avoid them.
I’m adding this reply to explain what causes them for me ( awake and asleep versions), as well as what works for me to avoid/treat them effectively.
Awake (milder) version :
- caused by stretching to reach something.
- caused by almost reaching sexual climax.
- caused by orgasm.
- caused by suddenly standing or twisting my body.
To stop/ reverse these types (pain typically 5/10 max), STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!! The desire to orgasm is hard to stop, but try again later! If you do, it will be much more painful than the pain leading up to it.
If you get " awake PF" after orgasm, you need to use your index and ring fingers to push against and slowly massage the outside of the " area" until the pain lowers. It will not be instant reversal, but you will feel much less sharp pain. Also, lay on your back and lift your feet off the ground – this removes muscle tension going through your legs and into your buttocks.
Night time " asleep PF"
- caused by dehydration ( specifically lack of WATER intake – not lack of liquid intake).
- allergic reaction to certain bedtime tea that I have consumed before laying down.
My attacks last approximately 1.5-2 solid hours. The begin by waking me up to 7/10 pain – going to 9/10 within minutes.
To fix, I do the following :
- immediately start running HOT bath.
- try and " go" to the toilet as water is filling the tub -- if anything passes , it hurts more in the moment, followed by slight relief.
- DRINK WATER IMMEDIATELY!!! ( at minimum a standard bottle of plain water during your time soaking).
- Pressure/ massage exterior of area with my hand under the water.
- legs UP against the shower wall, do not bend your knees and keep your feet in the water, that position tenses up those muscles running up to your rear.
Within 30 minutes of the above procedure, the pain goes from 9/10 down to 7/10. Another 30 min to 5/10. Another 30 min to 3/10 ( which i can then go back to sleep).
I wake up the following day with 0/10 pain.
Also for reference :
- allergic to NSAIDs ( cannot take aspirin or ibuprofen).
- allergic to "sleepytime DETOX tea" (100% PF rate after consuming and going to sleep).
- less than 24 ounces of plain water consumed the day/ night leading up to each nighttime event.
- 40, non-smoker, drug-free, moderate drinker, athletic, zero health issues of any kind.
The only pain I’ve experienced worse than this has been a kidney stone. That was 10/10 sustained for 3+ hours until i got the 3rd dose of morphine at the ER pre-surgery. This pain is 80-90% as bad as that.
Good luck. The pain is temporary.
I appreciate all the tips here. I am a 54 yr old female and have had PF for a few years. I too usually have them at night, feel like taking a BM would help but it doesn’t, usually end up lying on the bathroom floor until it passes, but it lasts for mintes to hours. yesterday I was out by myself and had an attack in the middle of a hospital pharmacy! I knew it was happening, and I couldn’t stop it! I wish I had known about some of these things. I got tunnel, vision, and hearing, I was very dizzy, I could barely walk to the pharmacy counter. And then it hit me, full on. I was immediately surrounded by a dozen medical personnel, who thought I had passed out.I just sat down quickly on the floor and laid down and was waiting for the pain to subside. They made me go to the emergency room, and kept me for three hours! I can’t tell you how embarrassing it was, but I am OK. thank you so much for all of these Great ideas! It is comforting to know I am not alone in this suffering.