What Do Pelvic Floor Spasms Feel Like?
If your pelvic floor muscles become too stretched out, then that can result in a host of issues, including incontinence and less pleasurable sex. While many women are focused on tightening up their pelvic floors through pelvic floor exercises, having pelvic muscles that are too tight can also lead to other issues, namely pelvic spasms. If you’re wondering whether or not you have pelvic spasms, below, we explain what pelvic floor spasms feel like and then explain a couple of options for treating pelvic floor spasms.
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What Do Pelvic Floor Spasms Feel Like?
A pelvic floor spasm feels much like a muscle spasm in other parts of your body, except it occurs deep within the pelvic floor. If you’ve ever had a muscle spasm in another part of your body — for example, a Charley horse cramp in your calves — then a pelvic spasm will feel similar to that. Pelvic spasms are caused by muscles that are overly tight, resulting in an involuntary series of contractions that feels like really bad cramps.
Because all your systems in the pelvic region are linked together, pelvic spasms can trigger other conditions that may not immediately seem to be related to the cramping. For instance, pelvic spasms can lead to a feeling of constantly needing to go to the bathroom, or keep you from fully voiding your bowels when you defecate, due to the constant spasming of muscles in that area.
Besides the cramping itself, some symptoms and side effects of pelvic spasms include:
- Ongoing pain in the pelvic region. This can also spread to the lower back and/or abdomen.
- Painful sex (aka dyspareunia)
- Pain during urination that may feel like burning
- Difficulty during urination, or a slow urination stream
- Frequent urination
- Constipation or difficulty passing stools
These conditions can also be symptoms of other things as well. Your doctor will run tests to determine if your symptoms are caused by pelvic spasms or another underlying factor, such as a urinary tract infection (UTI). Pelvic spasms are usually diagnosed in the absence of other conditions via process of elimination.
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Treating Pelvic Spasms
You may have heard of using pelvic floor exercises or Kegel ball exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor. This is exactly the opposite of what you want to do when you have pelvic spasms. Your muscles are too tight rather than too loose, so you want to focus on relaxing them and stretching them out instead.
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Your doctor will work with you to select treatments that will help your symptoms the most. One of the treatments they may recommend is vaginal dilation. Vaginal dilation can make penetrative sex more comfortable, ease pelvic examinations, and help relieve tight mucles that trigger spasms. This therapy involves using a set of vaginal dilators that look similar to bullet vibrators or Kegel balls. These dilators come in sets of slowly increasing diameters and are used to stretch the vaginal canal out. You start with the smallest one and slowly work your way up to the largest. Dilators may be made of hard plastic or silicone. Hard plastic will stretch the muscles more quickly, but many people find silicone more comfortable to use since it mimics the feeling of skin.
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To use a vaginal dilator, lie back in a comfortable position and try to relax as much as possible. Coat the dilator in plenty of lube and slide it into your vagina. Your doctor may have you simply lie there for 10-15 minutes and focus on relaxing the muscles. They may also have you move the dilator in and out or around to stretch out the muscles, or to practice contracting and then relaxing around the dilator. You should do this at least several times a week or once a day (whatever your doctor recommends) until you are ready to move up to the next size of dilator.
For severe pelvic spasms, your physician might recommend Botox, aka botulinum toxin type A, injections. While most well-known for its cosmetic applications, Botox is used to control muscle spasms all over the body, including the pelvic floor. Botox blocks the communication between the nerve and the muscle, giving them time to heal from the hyperactivity and return to normal.
Pelvic floor health affects many aspects of your life. To learn more about what pelvic floor therapy is, including Kegel ball exercises, check out our resource center.
Discover If Pelvic Floor Therapy Is Right for You