After being diagnosed with lupus, it’s common to scour the list of lupus symptoms to anticipate what you might expect from this autoimmune disorder. But one symptom you may not have heard about is tailbone pain — even though some MyLupusTeam members say it affects them frequently.

“I get pain (soreness) in my tailbone after sitting, even if only for a brief period,” one member wrote. “It does not feel bruised and I have not fallen. I have noticed it is increasing in frequency and severity over time.” Another member replied, “I suffer with pain often in my tailbone and lower back. It usually disturbs my sleep during bedtime.”

Managing chronic pain in the tailbone, also known as coccydynia, requires lifestyle changes and possibly medical attention. Before you can find the best pain relief plan, you’ll need to discover what is causing your symptoms in the first place.

Several factors can cause a person to develop coccydynia. If you’re experiencing in your tailbone area, a careful examination will likely be necessary to figure out the specific causes.

Symptoms of Tailbone Pain

Coccydynia may cause lower back pain symptoms that vary in severity from a dull ache to an intense stab. Tenderness and pain on the tailbone may worsen when you’re:

• Sitting
• Going from sitting to standing
• Having a bowel movement
• Engaging in sexual intercourse

Although a doctor may diagnose coccydynia based only on your reported symptoms, they may also rely on an MRI, a CT scan, and X-ray imaging to identify fractures, torn ligaments, cysts, or other visible causes of your pain.

Common Causes of Tailbone Pain

Tailbone pain can have many origins. External trauma, such as a fall that causes fracture, dislocation, or bruising, is a common explanation for coccyx pain. Internal trauma can be caused by intense childbirth or sitting on a hard or narrow surface, like a bicycle seat, for a long time.

Less commonly, tailbone pain can be caused by infection, abscess, and tumors, which are harder to pinpoint and diagnose. These causes can have very different treatment plans than tailbone pain from trauma to the body.

People from different backgrounds and groups may face varying risks of experiencing lower back pain in the tailbone region. Individuals considered the most likely to develop coccydynia are:

• Female
• At a higher body weight
• At a lower body weight
• Pregnant

Tailbone Pain in People With Lupus

Lupus is an inflammatory and autoimmune disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common type of the condition. In lupus, the immune system attacks the body’s healthy cells, causing inflammation. Inflammatory symptoms can appear throughout the body, causing symptoms like joint pain and swelling, fatigue, fevers, and facial rash.

However, the tailbone is not a common area for lupus symptoms to occur. Joint pain in people with lupus is most likely to affect the small extremity joints, such as those in the feet and hands.

Tailbone pain may also be associated with other conditions, such as osteoarthritis of the spine, psoriatic arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In those conditions, tailbone pain likely progresses over time, so it’s important to seek medical advice from your rheumatologist to receive appropriate medical treatment.

Tips for Managing Tailbone Pain

People with lupus may choose to manage tailbone pain just as they would manage the symptoms of a lupus flare.

To increase the chances of success, people with lupus-related tailbone pain should use a combination of different approaches like physical therapy, ergonomic adaptation (making things more comfortable and efficient), and taking medications. This treatment plan may include pain management with over-the-counter pain relievers such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids (steroids), regular use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and heat and cold therapy.

Ways to reduce tailbone pain and other lupus symptoms include:

• Resting
• Managing stress
• Sticking to a treatment plan prescribed by your health care team
• Using hot and cold therapy
• Stretching the affected area gently
• Participating in a physical therapy plan

Additional lifestyle recommendations for tailbone pain include leaning forward while sitting down and sitting on a doughnut- or wedge-shaped cushion to help ease tailbone discomfort.

Some MyLupusTeam members have shared their experiences with different forms of tailbone pain management:

• “Have you tried ice? Or you could try one of those packs that get cold when you snap them.”
• “I have a good pillow that takes the pressure off my tailbone when I’m seated for a long time at work.”
• “I sleep on my side with a pillow on the small of my back. It seems to help.”

Make sure to talk with your health care team before starting any new treatments, including home remedies. They can provide valuable guidance and tailor the treatment approach based on your specific condition. You’ll want to discuss any symptoms, pain severity, and how it affects your daily life to ensure an accurate diagnosis and appropriate management.

Find Your Team

On MyLupusTeam, the social network for people with lupus and their loved ones, more than 223,000 members come together to ask questions, give advice, and share their stories with others who understand life with lupus. Here, finding home remedies to ease pain is a commonly discussed topic.

Are you looking for ways to find relief from tailbone pain? Do you have any tips to offer? Share your experience in the comments below, or start a conversation by posting on your Activities page.