Tailbone Pain (Coccydynia)

Overview of tailbone pain:

Tailbone pain, or coccydynia, can be a lingering and frustrating issue that affects sitting, movement, and even daily comfort. It may develop after childbirth, prolonged sitting, falls, or pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. Let us be clear: tailbone pain is NOT a normal part of childbirth recovery. If you are having tailbone pain more than a few days after giving birth, definitely get help!

Common Causes:

  • Trauma from childbirth or a fall

  • Prolonged pushing stage of labor

  • Prolonged sitting on hard surfaces

  • Poor pelvic alignment

  • Chronic muscle tension in the pelvic floor or hips

Impact on daily life:

Tailbone pain can make something as simple as sitting for dinner with your family unbearable. Many people feel socially withdrawn, avoid travel or events, and may feel irritable or frustrated. The persistent discomfort can wear down your patience, limit physical activities, and cause anxiety about pain flaring up.

How pelvic floor therapy helps:

We identify the source—whether it’s muscle tension, joint mobility issues, or scar tissue—and address it with targeted manual therapy, gentle mobilization, postural retraining, and movement education.

Our treatment:

Tailbone pain can actually be on the tailbone, but often we find that the pain is coming from the ligaments and attachment sites of muscles on the tailbone. The pelvic floor muscles attach to the coccyx bone, as well as some ligaments. If these muscles are too tight, they put stress and tension on the tailbone and cause pain. We work to release the tight muscles with both internal and external techniques (if you are comfortable with that) and bring balance back to the pelvis. We perform mobilizations to the coccyx and surrounding tissues and provide postural and ergonomic education for sitting comfort as well as product recommendations. We offer 1:1, hour-long sessions so we have time to address your unique needs and contributing factors to your specific symptoms. We give you mobility and strengthening exercises to help keep things moving well and feeling good between sessions. We want you to be able to sit, drive, stand, run, and all the other things you want to do without worrying about stubborn tailbone pain!

Ready to tackle your tailbone pain? Book your evaluation today.