How Do You Know If Your Tailbone Is Bruised

Bruised or Broken Tailbone Symptoms

• Skin Discoloration. Injury to the tailbone can damage the blood vessels within the surrounding skin.
• Swelling, Pain or Tenderness. A tailbone injury can damage the skin, tissue and muscles that surround this tiny bone.
• Painful Bowel Movements. Patients who become constipated may also experience abdominal discomfort, cramping or bloating.

A hard fall on the bottom and the pain, bruising, and swelling that accompany it could be symptoms of a fractured tailbone. The tailbone, or the coccyx, refers to the very last segment of the spinal column that ends just above the buttocks.

Symptoms include pain in the coccyx area (the lower back where the tailbone is located) when standing or sitting (especially on soft surfaces), which may be accompanied by severe pain when you move from sitting to standing. You may also experience pain after a bowel movement.

A bruised tailbone should heal itself within a few weeks with the help of ice, alleviating pressure on the area, and ibuprofen. Pain for more than a month may be a sign that there is a fracture in the tailbone.

Common Causes: Coccyx pain. Some of the possible common medical causes of Coccyx pain may include: Unstable or dislocating coccyx. Spur on coccyx. Misaligned, rigid, or long coccyx. Muscle spasm or tightness.

If your tailbone pain doesn’t improve (chronic coccydynia), consult your doctor. He or she might do a rectal exam to rule out any other conditions. Your doctor might recommend using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to find out if you have a fracture, degenerative changes or, in rare cases, a tumor.

If you have the signs and symptoms of a coccyx injury or unexplained discomfort in the tailbone area, contact your doctor. It may be necessary for the doctor to decide if the injury is traumatic or if the pain is caused by other, more serious, problems. Injuries to the region of the tailbone rarely require a visit to the emergency department.

Tailbone fractures sometimes occur due to blunt force causing injury at that location. Common examples include falling on the tailbone (landing on the coccyx) and similar injuries. Make a note of when the tailbone injury occurred and how it happened.

There could be any number of causes for tailbone pain. Two common causes are trauma to the area and pregnancy/childbirth. In very rare cases, coccydynia may also be caused by an infection, a tumour, or a fracture. If you are experiencing: Sudden tailbone pain. Tailbone pain without an injury. Tailbone pain from sitting.

The symptoms described vary, sitting pain being the most common: Pain during or after sitting, the level of pain depending on how long you sit. … Acute pain while moving from sitting to standing. … Pain caused by sitting on a soft, but not a hard surface. … Deep ache around the butt Sensitivity to finger pressure on the tip or edges of the coccyx Shooting pains down the leg Like sitting on a marble that moves around More items…

Symptoms often come and go, and are not severe. The most common symptoms include the following: Hematuria (blood in the urine) — The most common sign of bladder cancer is blood in the urine (hematuria). Hematuria caused by cancer is usually visible (turning the urine pink or red), intermittent, and does not cause pain.

If along the course the sciatic nerve gets compressed by the piriformis muscle, it can cause instability and pain in the hip, tailbone (coccyx), buttock, groin, or foot. The sciatic nerve passes under the piriformis muscle.

constipation can cause increased pressure on the tailbone region Coccyx problems can cause problems/symptoms in the gastrointestinal (rectum, colon) region.

A bruised tailbone may take several days or weeks to heal completely. In cases where the tailbone is actually fractured, you may need to stay in bed for a day or two; the healing process can take four to six weeks.

Method 2 of 3: Treating a Tailbone Injury with Home Remedies Don’t sit for lengthy periods of time. Sitting down for an extended period of time can cause extreme pain if you are suffering from a tailbone injury. Avoid sitting on hard surfaces. Taking a seat on a hard surface can complicate a tailbone injury and cause additional pain. Sit on a doughnut pillow or cushion. … Apply ice four times daily. … More items…

Healing time for an injured tailbone depends on the severity of the injury. If you have a fracture, healing can take between 8 to 12 weeks. If your tailbone injury is a bruise, healing takes about 4 weeks.

Coccydynia is inflammation localized to the tailbone (coccyx). There are many mimics of coccydynia. Symptoms and signs of coccydynia include focal pain and tenderness at the tailbone. The pain is usually dull and achy. An injury to the coccyx is a major risk factor for coccydynia.

There are many causes of tailbone pain that can mimic coccydynia, including sciatica, infection (including shingles of the buttocks), pilonidal cysts, sacroiliitis, and fractured bone (broken tailbone or tailbone fracture ). Medically speaking, the term "myalgia" refers to what type of pain?

Less common causes can include a bony growth on the coccyx, the coccyx being too flexible or too rigid, and arthritis. Rare but serious causes include infection and cancer. In many cases, no obvious cause can be found. Age-related "wear and tear" may play a part. Read more about the causes of coccydynia.

Coccydynia is pain in or around the area of the coccyx, also called the tailbone.