Coccyx Pain and Posture

This post was written by H&W instructor Lila Abbate PT, DPT, MS, OCS. Lila will be instructing the course that she wrote on "Coccyx Pain" in New Hampshire in September.

“Sit up tall, stand up straight” were comments we heard from our teachers and our caregivers. Do you find that you are saying that now to your patients? Postural correction can go beyond just preventing neck and low back pain. For a women’s health therapist, improved posture may help our patients prevent uterine prolapse or reduce coccyx pain.

Lind, Lucente and Kohn published a study back in 1996 titled Thoracic Kyphosis and the Prevalence of Advanced Uterine Prolapse. They determined that, in patients with uterine prolapse, the degree of thoracic kyphosis was about 13 degrees higher than in the 48 matched controls.¹ Hodges, in the chapter titled “Chronic Low Back and Coccygeal Pain” in Clinical Reasoning for Manual Therapists, presents a case of a 39 year old woman with poor posture who has reproducible coccygeal pain, despite a coccygectomy, with palpation of her L4 segment. This poor posture perpetuates nerve and muscle dysfunction along with decreased and inappropriate muscle firing patterns that have created this long-term condition.

Whether our patients present with pelvic organ prolapse, chronic low back or coccygeal pain, it is important to step back and look at their overall posture. Decreasing thoracic kyphosis, or improving thoracic mobility, can help change an entire system. If you are looking for a course that takes you back to the basics and then enhances it with a twist of advanced techniques think about taking the Institute’s 2-day Coccydynia course.

References:

1. Lind LR, Lucente V, Kohn N. Thoracic Kyphosis and the Prevenlence of Advanced Uterine Prolapse. Obstet Gynecol. 1996 Apr; 84 (4): 605-609.

2. Hodges P. Clinical Reasoning for Manual Therapists, Chapter 7, Chronic Low Back and Coccygeal Pain. Elsevier.2004; 103-122.