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Pelvic pain in men is more common that you might think. We don’t hear about it because men don’t like to admit they’re in pain, especially when the pain is in his penis and causes pain on ejaculation, or testicular pain, groin pain, a frequent need to urinate, loss of libido….Not only does he shut up and close ranks internally but inside he is terrified he has some kind of cancer and he often sticks his head in the sand and hopes to ‘wait it out’.
Often a partner or friend is the first to notice signs of changes in libido or irritability and it can take quite a while to finally get the guy to get medical help.
That’s where sometimes the problems can get worse! GP’s routinely screen for ‘prostatitis’, refer to Urologists who also test for a medical cause for his pain and quite often all tests are returned as normal. The pain persists and pelvic pain sufferers know of nowhere else to turn.
There is now growing evidence that some CPPS sufferers may actually have pelvic floor muscle spasm (hypertonicity) rather than an inflamed or infected prostate gland. In light of this, men’s health physiotherapists may provide an important role in helping to diagnose and improve the dysfunctions that cause pelvic floor hypertonicity.
Treatments can range from breathing exercises, to acupuncture/dry
needling techniques, to massage (both externally to muscles around the core and internally within the pelvic floor).
Pain is both a physical and emotional entity, so often both medicinal (drugs) and psychological (cognitive) interventions can be of use in conjunction with physical treatments – it is a well known fact that multimodal management of patients with pain provides significantly better outcomes.
The key is NOT TO SUFFER IN SILENCE…and as bad as the pain and dysfunction may seem to you right now, there is always potential to improve the situation if the right help is given.
