vincent's story: pain with sitting

Written by Becca Ironside, PT

Vincent found our clinic by chance. He scoured the Internet, looking for a reason to explain the confounding pain in his pelvis. Vincent had a high-stress, corporate job wherein he sat all day long. He began to notice pain in his perineum while sitting. The longer he sat, the worse the pain became. ​

There were other symptoms, and they were even more troubling. Vincent began to have difficulty urinating. He would have the intense urge to void his bladder, but upon rushing to the bathroom, nothing would come out. Then there was the constipation. ​​Days would go by, with no bowel movements. The discomfort and bloating in Vincent’s stomach made eating food feel like he was a beaver actively working to dam up the river of his intestines. So, he stopped eating for a few days. But that did not help and the constipation persisted. 

The final symptom which prompted Vincent to become desperate for help was testicular and penile pain during arousal. Vincent could no longer have intercourse with his wife without searing pain.  He called a urologist and a gastroenterologist. He scheduled appointments for both specialists around his busy schedule.

The urologist prescribed a pharmaceutical named Flomax to improve Vincent’s ease in urination. The gastroenterologist recommended Miralax, a bowel aide which allows water to be retained in the stool, thereby promoting softer stool and more frequent bowel movements.  Both of these agents helped Vincent with about one-third of his overall complaints; but he was still unable to sit at his desk without pain, and his sex life had taken a turn for the worse. Vincent’s wife was unhappy, though not as unhappy as Vincent. There has to be something out there to help me, he wondered. But what?

This was when Vincent initiated his full-throttle search on the Internet. He looked for stories of men with similar complaints. Vincent lives in Central New Jersey. There came a day when he found Connect PT online. The office was merely 14 miles from his home! He booked an appointment for the following week and crossed his fingers as he paced around his office, trying to stop the throbbing in his pelvis by willpower alone.

Upon his initial Pelvic Floor physical therapy evaluation, Vincent told his entire history to his evaluating therapist. She sat and nodded, and then proceeded to ask him a series of questions about his symptoms. To every one of the questions, Vincent longed to shout: YES! I have trouble maintaining a urinary stream! I have severe constipation! I cannot sit without pain! I cannot have sex anymore, because the discomfort is not worth the release!

The PT gave Vincent some relaxation exercises, a home program to stretch his own pelvic floor and even a link to a seat cushion which Vincent could use to take the pressure off of his perineum, rectum and tailbone. This would allow him to sit for longer periods of time with less pain, the PT said. Within a few months, Vincent was able to urinate more freely, have more consistent bowel movements, and was able to return to having sex with his wife.

How had all of this happened? Was it magic? No. But it seemed that way to Vincent. Vincent’s recovery had everything to do with his willingness to seek treatment and the newfound availability of Pelvic Floor physical therapy. His symptoms were far more common than he knew. Now, Vincent writes blogs about pelvic pain in order to share his experience with other men who may be suffering from similar complaints.

The greatest outcome of Vincent’s recovery was his decision to retire from his high-stress, corporate job. He still uses the special seat cushion which takes pressure off of his pelvic floor to drive across the country in an RV. Vincent and his wife have seen Yellowstone National Park, and they even take their English bulldog named Lola along for the ride. In sum, everyone is happier. Vincent, his wife and Lola. All because of one fortuitous Internet search and the prevalence of Pelvic Floor physical therapy.

“Looking back, I see that my symptoms really began to change when I began talking about this,” Vincent says. “Giving a voice to the pain, isolation and embarrassment has changed everything. I just want more people to know that they are not alone.”