Buttocks Pain???

Ok, this is going to sound a little strange...... I am 9 weeks pregnant and have really bad buttocks pain (only one side/left) :redface:
It has been on and off for around a week+ but last night it was really bad.

Mainly when I'm standing/walking and you go to bend down and pick something up.

I have had some back pain/hip pain since around 6 weeks but this is very different.

I rang to speak to my OB but he wasn't available and don't see him till next Friday but the nurse/receptionist who answered said that this normally happens at the end of a pregnancy???

My question is has anyone else heard or had this...

Thanks in advance

It's probably Pelvic Girdle Pain. Perfectly normal during pregnancy. Search engine it & you will see your symptoms match it. Some may suggest sciatica which is similar but a little different. Generally you wont get that when you are pregnant unless you got it before you were pregnant (like me). PGP only happens when you are pregnant.

What kind of pain is it, mate? Is it a dull muscular ache or is it a sharp shooting pain?
There's a muscle in your butt cheek, deep to your glutes (the big ones) and it sits on top of your sciatic nerve. If your pain is sharp, shooting pain, it's more likely nerve pain. You may feel pain, tingles, pins & needles etc anywhere along the back of your leg to your foot.
Alternatively, so many of us carry tension in our butts! When people have lower back pain, it is really important to massage glutes because the back pain will often transfer to the butt, KWIM? So if it is muscular tension, perhaps a massage would really help.
Hopefully this gives you something to go on. You could perhaps go and see a physio or osteo if you can't contact your OB? Tell them you are preggers and they may be able to offer you more insight.

Yes my dear, you poor thing... it does sounds like PGP as this is exactly what I felt like...Good news is you can make it better by visiting an osteo or physio but I had to relearn the way I moved in order to make it better for myself.

1-ALWAYS bend your knees when bending down, that means even to empty the dishwasher
2- DO NOT LIFT ANYTHING HEAVY
3-Try to keep your pelvis (hips) locked and don't twist, i.e if you need to turn left, turn your WHOLE body not just the top half.
4- Keep your knees closed together when getting in and out of the bed, the car, the couch.
5- You can try sleeping with a pillow in betweeen you knees, it keeps your spine and pelvis into line.

Hope it gets better for you!

Thanks ladies for your replies, it is greatly appreciated :)
It is such a strange pain. It feels like a sharp pain in the butt but then does not seem to travel down my leg or anywhere else.
Even getting on/off the loo:redface: is slightly painful.

I have no idea how long this pain continues in pregnancy but hope it goes away soon.

Hi Nicole,
It could possibly be your sacroiliac joint that has become slightly inflamed. I aggravated this at work when moving stock around, and my Dr told me that it is actually more common in pregnant women because everything loosens up and moves in preparation for carrying a child. If you Google it, it will describe the pain you are getting pretty much exactly. The best way to alleviate it is with a heat pack and when you are sitting - place a firm pillow behind your back for support (including when driving), you'll need to limit bending and twisting and make sure not to lift anything heavy.

I get this exact pain and its from sciatica. The only thing that helps me is seeing a Chiropractor.

SIJ that Clarebear mentioned is PGP but just with a different name.

If it is PGP/SIJ you could have it right up til 12 weeks after giving birth but this is unusual, usually it goes away after the birth. I read somewhere that a lot of women get this during their pregnancy - some just get a few days, others weeks, some get it right through. Some women get it mild, some get it severe.

I could never work out if it was sciatic pain or PGP that I had when I was pregnant as it felt very like the sciatic pain that I had pre pregnancy (and post). I got a few days of pain early on & then a fair bit of it during the 3rd tri but it was never unmanagable.

Pelvic floor excercises are thought to help with PGP so if you aren't doing them yet get to it quick smart.

The other girls have pretty much covered what i would suggest, the sacroiliac pain is felt around the sacrum (The large bone at the bottom of the spine, above the tail bone)
It could be sprained or your pelvis might be out, this also causes sacroiliac pain.

It could also be sciatic pain, which sometimes is and sometime's isn't felt in the leg also. It tends to be on one side, but can be in both.

It could be a compressed nerve because of the tightness in the gluteal muscles. That major muscle someone mentioned, the piriformis, can give you some real nasty pain when it is locked up.

A massage can relieve muscle tightness which can help sciatic pain and general glute tightness, and can also help relieve the pain associated with the sacroiliac joint. A chiropractor (find a good one) can help with structural problems in the hips and pelivs. Cause of the changes in your body and everything loosening up to accommodate this kind of pain is quite common. Use a heat pack on the area to warm up the muscles. It can help to sit or lie down and place a tennis ball under the muscles to help relieve the pain, kinda roll your body over it.

Hope some of this helps!!

Thanks ladies for all the great advise, I am so glad I actually asked this question as it seemed like a really odd pain :redface:

I googled a fair bit this arvo and seems like these types of pains are quite common in pregnancy but there is no real fix for it either.
Will try the heat pack tonight and see how that goes, and will speak further to my OB next Friday and see what his thoughts are.

Thanks again :)

One of the girls i work with is pregnant and was getting this, we've been massaging her once a week for the past few weeks, plus she's seen the chiro twice i think and is so much better now, so it really can be treated quite well. Don't think just cause you are pregnant you have to keep putting up with it!