Do you ever find yourself tensing up your pelvic/

[Roandro]

bladder/vulvar area?

Its where I hold my tension. It sneaks up because as as soon as you release it, its tense again in a minute or two.

I'm sure its not good for that area to be always (except when I'm asleep !) held so tightly as I can imagine it must be very tiring to the muscles and tisssue there - perhaps even cause inflammation.

Maybe that's why they say "stress" can bring on a flare.

[Roandro]

Well, I guess no one else has this weird symptom. Just me.

I had it, again, today but 'noticed that if I can engage my monkey mind elsewhere and not focus solely on my symptoms it goes away.

Walking can help, I believe, as it gets those muscles moving in opposite directions.

I think I will experiment with that and see how it goes.

[yvette]

Oh absolutely! No you're not the only one who does that....I know I've done it without even thinking. I'm pretty sure that's how come I've got TMJ too.

I'm pretty sure somewhere here there's either an article from Jill or perhaps its a transcript with a guest speaker that does cover this, and how natural it is to do that...but that its really not a good thing. And that tensing up your muscles can cause the feeling of needing to go becomes stronger....I hope somebody else remembers what article./trasnscript that's from and posts back. :)

[sickofmybladder]

You are definately not the only one - your pelvic area is surrounded by muscles - so while some people tend to have sore shoulders etc. - I tend to tense in my stomach and pelvic area -

I try to be more aware of it now (since I've been through Physical Therapy) but still catch myself doing it all the time.

[Briza]

Yep, I do that all the time, too. I store all my stress there....my gyn told me I have "an anxious vagina." lol And yes, it is not good for my vaginal and vulva tissue...the clenching and spasming causes those areas to become raw and inflamed. If I realize I'm doing it, I can sometimes get myself out of the spasm by bearing down, kind of like doing a reverse-Kegel. Also low dose valium helped me a lot.

[Katrina]

Oh sure...today when getting my stitches out...which was worse than I expected since the stitches were so thick....I am trying hard not to move or react to the pain that is causing but I take it out on my pelvis.......and boy did i know right away ....(Katrina you need to stop this or you will ahve a different pain) hard work to keep yourself relaxed in your pelvis when the natural thing to do is tense up! :grouphug:

[Roandro]

Whoa!

Thanks, guys, 'glad to hear I'm not the only one with the "tight pelvis."

I'm trying to do something my acupuncture doctor recommended and that is to say the word "relax" over and over and when you do so say the "re" part while you slowly inhale as you push your lower abdomen out and the "lax" part on the exhale, slowly doing the reverse. Do this over and over - gradually - you will feel your muscles un-tensing. There is an additional psychological benefit as once you know you have this tool in your tool belt it sort of makes you more calm just knowing you can use it whenever you need it (often for me).
I had forgotten all about it until today and just started using it while we were at a movie this afternoon and I realized I was tensing up. It worked - I just had to keep reminding myself to do it.

The nice thing about it is you can do it anywhere you are and no one will know - only you.

[Charisse]

My first IC flare/pain was in April 2000 after sitting with my legs tightly crossed at my great-grandmother's funeral. I stood up and had the worst shooting stabbing pain. The pain was strictly urethral at that time and I'm sure no coincidence that I had been tensing those muscles so tightly. I was of course misdiagnosed as having a UTI and didn't get an IC diagnosis until last year. When in a flare I notice I absolutely cannot relax that area no matter how hard I try. I don't have tension in my vagina though . . just the urethra which is where most of my inflammation is.

[MaryMcE]

wow. thank you for this post. this is ME completely. I will work on trying to relax those muscles.

thanks so much for this forum

mary

[Dreamlove15]

I tend to tense my pelvic muscles alot more when im in a flare. Hence the whole "vicious cycle" never seems to end.

It's like you tighten your muscles because your in pain, and then that in turn aggrevates your bladder...squeezing and putting more pressure upon it.

Ugh. I totally understand what your describing.

Its IC heck!:rant:

[Roandro]

Good points - plus I've noticed the (tight) legs crossed over each other makes the internal muscle tensing much worse.

Something I've started to do when I'm home is to sit on a heating pad. Not fold it over my pubic bone as I used to do but just sit on it - with most of the "sitting" on my gluteus maximus muscles as opposed to the genital area. I keep it on "low" and sit on it while on the computer or watching tv. Its relaxing and seems to loosen those super tight pelvic and perineal muscles.

My TCM doctor said that the area between the legs is known as the "root" or "fear" chakra and to keep that area relaxed while in the car, some people keep their heated seat option on - even in the summer.

I try to keep my legs parallel to each other, NOT crossed, and keep my jaw slack (mouth slightly open) so I don't get into that powerful whole body tension scenario. It can often begin (whole body tension) with the super powerful jaw clenching muscles and radiate down the whole body.

[mom_in_ma]

Read a "Headache in the Pelvis," it will explain the whole problem of holding tension in your pelvic floor muscles. There is a new 5th edition out, but make sure that you get the addendum with it (it should be included automatically) as the entire section on trigger points in women was accidentally left out of the most recent printing because a file didn't reach the printer. It's the most helpful part of the book! The fourth edition would be fine too, as it has quite a bit of information about women in it.