Tailbone Pain Awareness Day [Nov. 15] Sheds Light on an Often-Misdiagnosed Condition

Thousands of people suffer with tailbone pain, often struggling to find an accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.

Tailbone Pain Awareness Day, created by Patrick Foye, director of the Coccyx Pain Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) in Newark and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at NJMS, aims to change that by bringing awareness to this debilitating and often misdiagnosed condition. Foye, the author of Tailbone Pain Relief Now!, founded the Coccyx Pain Center more than 20 years ago, establishing the nation's only academic medical center dedicated to specialized care for tailbone pain.

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On Nov. 15, Tailbone Pain Awareness Day, Foye will host a Facebook Live session at noon EST during which he will discuss the challenges of diagnosing tailbone pain and the importance of bringing awareness to this often-overlooked condition.

What inspired you to establish Tailbone Pain Awareness Day?

I wanted to bring attention to this painful condition and to support doctors and patients in learning about the most modern tests and treatments. Unfortunately, many people suffer for months and years before they find their way to see me for expertise in this specific condition.

What are some challenges that physicians face in diagnosing and treating tailbone pain?

One problem is that tailbone pain is dramatically less common than low back pain in the lumbar area. So, unfortunately, many doctors don't have much experience or training in properly caring for tailbone pain, also called coccyx pain or coccydynia. As a result, patients experiencing tailbone pain get lumped in with lumbar low back pain, when in fact the testing and treatment are very different.

Another challenge is that many patients report a social stigma to discussing tailbone pain with others. Many patients have reported that their doctors laughed out loud when the patient said they thought their pain was coming from their coccyx. Thus, patients feel embarrassed and unsure about treatment.

About 40% of my patients travel nationally and internationally to see me for treatment.Unfortunately, their local doctors can't keep up with the latest advancements for conditions that they rarely see. Unlike low back pain in the "lumbar" region, up near the beltline, coccyx pain is located much lower, just above the anus, and is dramatically less common.

Describe the cutting-edge technology in diagnosing and treating tailbone pain.

The most common cause of tailbone pain is joint hypermobility, which results in excessive movement of the individual bones of the coccyx. However, most radiology departments in the U.S. and worldwide have no experience doing the specialized types of X-rays that are the gold standard for making this diagnosis.

The University Hospital Radiology Department does sitting-versus-standing X-rays of the coccyx to assess whether there is abnormal movement of the coccyx while the person is sitting. When sitting, you put your body weight onto your coccyx. The tailbone position while sitting is compared with the position while standing, often revealing abnormal, excessive bone movement. Thus, a diagnosis can be reached in patients whose prior imaging studies all looked normal.

At the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, I spend a lot of time with each patient to assess their symptoms, physical exam findings and imaging studies to make an accurate clinical diagnosis. Based on all of this, I can provide individualized treatments, such as specialized types of pain management injections done under fluoroscopic guidance.