Can pudendal pain cause thigh burning?

[missy328]

I am in the process of trying to figure out whether or not I have pudendal neuralgia.  I have a CT guided injection on the 25th of this month.  My main symptoms are unexplainable vaginal pain, pain on the sit-bone area when sitting down, burning/tingling down the back of my legs which sometimes goes into my toes (probably some sciatic problems there), pretty good relief when standing but need to sleep on stomach, occasional loss of bladder control...mainly just some urine leakage (not too bad though) and burning from the top inside of my thigh down to the top of my knee.  

I asked the pudendal specialist's nurse if the thigh burning can be from PN and she said no.  I'm hesitant to undergo a CT injection because the PN specialist and two PT's could not stimulate my pudendal nerve but it seems like I have so many of the symptoms.  Do you think I should still have the injection and also if the nerve isn't causing my thigh pain then what could be the cause?  Thank you very much.


This discussion is related to Pudendal pain.

[DrNoopurMD]

Hi,

Thanks for writing in.
Pudendal neuralgia will not cause burning pain in the thigh. Burning pain in the thigh can occur due to nerve compression in the lower back due to herniated disc or disc prolapse, spinal stenosis or due to diabetes and peripheral neuropathy.
This requires further evaluation by a neurologist in order to ascertain the right cause of burning in the thigh.

Hope this helps!

[missy328]

Thank you.  But I've had an MRI and an xray of the lumbar spine and both came back normal.  If I had a herniated disc wouldn't that have showed up?  

[DrNoopurMD]

Hi,

Yes herniated disc would have showed in the MRI. Other possibilities like peripheral neuropathy due to diabetes, B 12 deficiency and thyroid dysfunction need to be looked into.
There is another condition known as meralgia paresthetica which causes burning pain in the thigh due to compression of nerves at the hip. The nerve usually involved is femoral cutaneous nerve.
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00340

Hope this helps!

[missy328]

Thank you again.  I looked up the info you gave me and although I do have some pain on the outside of both thighs most of it is on the inside.  What kind of doctor should I see?  Neurologist?  I have an appt. at a pain clinic on Monday, will they be able to help me?  I'm still going to have the CT guided injection to rule out pudendal neuralgia.  I've had lower back pain for years but my chriopractor friend said it's probably going to be like that for the rest of my life because we both think it was caused by the epidural I had while delivering my baby 10 years ago.  He said my spine overall looks good.  And I never had back problems prior to pregnancy.  But I am also an avid exerciser, so I think most of what's going on in my backside was probably caused because I over-exercised.  I'm just not sure what to do from here.  It seems to calm down a little bit and then flare back up.  I'm so frustrated!  Thanks for your help, I really appreciate you taking the time to give me ideas.  I'm still all ears if you have anything else that I can write down on my list of "possibles" for my doctor.  Have a great day!