Painful Orgasms: What are Some of the More Common Causes?

Healthline's latest article on painful orgasms includes Heather's insights into pelvic floor over-reactivity and its correlation to issues of painful vaginal and anal orasms.

Orgasms are always pleasurable, right? Actually, wrong.

For some people, orgasms aren’t even “just OK.” They’re downright painful. Officially known as dysorgasmia, painful orgasms are something someone of any anatomy can experience.

Pelvic floor over-reactivity

In vulva owners, the most common cause of dysorgasmia is pelvic floor dysfunction.

As a refresher: the pelvic floor muscles are located in the — you guessed it! — pelvis. They span from the pubic bone (in the front) to the coccyx (in the back) and from side to side.

Pudendal Neuralgia (PN) is a condition that can cause chronic pain or numbness along the course of the pudendal nerve, which is the nerve that innervates the pelvic floor.

What is the pudendal nerve and what does it do?

The pudendal nerve, like other peripheral nerves in your body, is how your brain “connects” with the muscles and tissues of the body- sending and receiving messages between the brain and body like movement and sensation. When nerves get compressed, irritated, or constricted, problems can occur in this “message chain” and you might feel things like pain, numbness, tingling.

If you’ve ever had carpal tunnel syndrome or if your leg has ever fallen asleep while sitting criss cross apple sauce- you’ve experienced what nerve compression can feel like. Pudendal neuralgia is similar, just involving your pudendal nerve.