"I have now lost about 90 lbs since my bariatric operation and recently I noticed pain in my tailbone. Could this be related to my weight loss?"

Yes! It is very likely to be a result of your weight loss. Before you lost your weight from bariatric surgery your “tail bone”, which doctors call your coccyx, is protected by the fatty tissue at your bottom. Now that you do not have this protection your coccyx is being irritated by the chair you are sitting on and is repeatedly traumatized day after day. This is like having arthritis of the “tailbone” and is called coccydynia.

This does not happen to everyone because it depends on a person’s anatomy. If the coccyx is high enough to be above the pelvic bones on either side, the “tailbone” is not bothered. However if it is lower than the pelvic bones on either side it is likely to touch the chair or whatever you are sitting on and become uncomfortable.

In my practice I have someone with this complaint about once every other month. Usually they have already tried changing chairs and cushions but continue to complain about the pain. In my opinion the best therapy for this problem is a steroid injection at the coccyx. I use Kenalog and local anesthesia and do the injection in the office. It only takes a few seconds. Patients feel better almost immediately because of the local anesthetic in the injection but the discomfort returns in an hour or so. This shows that the medicine was placed in the correct location. Usually the pain will slowly improve over the following few weeks and will eventially be gone completely. The steroid will continue to do its work for about three months. Often the discomfort will not return after this injection.
I hoe this is helpful.

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