Can A Woman Give Birth Vaginally After Coccygectomy?
- Giving birth to vaginally can cause or worsen coccyx pain (tailbone pain, coccydynia).
- During childbirth for a vaginal delivery, the baby passes through the birth canal, which can cause pressure and trauma onto the coccyx.
Recently I was asked whether giving birth to vaginally would be likely to worsen the tailbone pain in a woman who had previously undergone coccygectomy (surgical amputation or removal of the coccyx, tailbone)
- Theoretically, if a person’s coccyx was removed, it is therefore “out of the way” and no longer obstruct the birth canal.
- Still, most people have some degree of ongoing discomfort/pain in the coccyx area even after coccygectomy. So there is a risk that pregnancy and especially giving birth can make the pain even worse.
- Certainly no one can guarantee whether a vaginal delivery will or will not flare-up a given individual’s pain, even after coccygectomy.
- I do not know of any published study showing how patients do with giving birth vaginally after coccygectomy, so there is not really any substantial research-based data upon which a given person can make their decision.
- So some of the decision comes down to what makes the most sense for a given woman.
- For my own patients, if someone had a coccygectomy and is now considering giving birth vaginally, I generally use their current level of coccyx pain as a ballpark indicator of how much risk there would be for the vaginal delivery flaring up the pain in that area.
- (If the pain in the coccygectomy area is already pretty bad, then most likely the labor/delivery will make it even worse, in which case it may make sense to consider delivering via C-section [cesarean section]. Alternatively, if the patient had an excellent outcome after coccygectomy and has had multiple years with little or no pain in that area, then they probably have a significantly better chance of delivering vaginally without a substantial flareup, although of course there are no guarantees.)
- There is no one “right” answer that will work for *all* patients.
- Each patient needs to discuss the options with their in-person treating physicians.
Female Pelvis, showing the Uterus, Sacrum, Coccyx, Tailbone, etc.
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– Patrick Foye, M.D., Director of the Coccyx Pain Center, New Jersey, United States.
Founder and Director at Tailbone Pain Center
Dr. Foye is an expert at treating tailbone pain (coccyx pain).
His personable, private-practice office is located on a modern, renowned, academic medical school campus, at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
For an appointment, call 973-972-2802.
https://tailbonedoctor.com/
His personable, private-practice office is located on a modern, renowned, academic medical school campus, at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
For an appointment, call 973-972-2802.
https://tailbonedoctor.com/
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