Sciatica? Maybe yes, and maybe no.

So, you have pain in your butt – it must be sciatica, right? So why aren’t those exercises you found online working? Well, “sciatica” has become a catch all term for pain in the buttock, but true sciatica is irritation of the sciatic nerve, and typically presents as pain or paresthesia from the buttock shooting down the back of the thigh and leg, along the path of the sciatic nerve. There are several other possible causes for your “pain in the butt,” which include sacroiliac joint irritation, lumbar joint irritation, lumbar disc pathology, piriformis syndrome, gluteal muscle irritation, IT band syndrome, bursitis, and yes, pelvic floor spasm or a combination. If the simple exercises you found online are not working, it could because you are focused on the wrong thing. So don’t despair, it doesn’t mean you need surgery or injections etc, you may just need a thorough evaluation from a skilled professional to identify the real culprit and get you on the track to recovery.