Everything I have written about anorectal spasm and pelvic floor pain, in the same voice as the book. Two clusters, because there are two conditions here and people constantly read the wrong one.
Every article lists its sources, carries a last-updated date, and links to whatever should come next.
The sharp, brief, usually nocturnal kind — the one that wakes you, lasts fifteen minutes, and leaves nothing behind.
Start here · the complete guide
Sudden severe rectal pain that hits at night and vanishes without a trace. What it is, why it happens, how to stop an attack, and how to have fewer of them.
Read the guide →
Two conditions, same neighbourhood, constantly confused — even in the coding manuals. The one test that separates them, and why the distinction changes what helps you.
Updated 7 September 2026
It is not rare in men. Here are the questions men carry privately about rectal spasm — the dream, the fear about sexuality, the stiff prostate days — answered plainly.
Updated 7 September 2026
The unglamorous stack that cut my episode rate by around 90%: breathing, pelvic floor down-training, hydration, stool mechanics, sitting habits and sleep.
Updated 7 September 2026
What actually helps, honestly graded — from breathing and heat at home to salbutamol, topical nitrates, botulinum toxin and pelvic floor physiotherapy in the clinic.
Updated 7 September 2026
There is rarely one cause. There is a stack — a fixed baseline, a daily background load, and the acute trigger that tips tonight over. Here is how to audit your own.
Updated 7 September 2026
No, it is benign — but it is a diagnosis of exclusion. The red-flag symptoms that mean see a doctor first, the conditions that impersonate it, and why it is not cancer.
Updated 7 September 2026
Almost everyone gets these attacks asleep, in the small hours. Here are the seven things that stack up overnight, and what you can change before you turn the light off.
Updated 7 September 2026
A step-by-step protocol for stopping a rectal spasm while it is happening — position, breathing, heat, counter-pressure — plus the bedside kit to assemble tonight.
Updated 7 September 2026
A plain-English explanation of what proctalgia fugax is, what it feels like, why it happens, and why the fact that it leaves no trace is the whole problem.
Updated 7 September 2026
The dull, heavy, sitting-hating kind — the one that feels like a golf ball and does not go away between attacks.
Start here · the complete guide
The dull, heavy rectal ache that gets worse when you sit. What levator ani syndrome is, what causes it, who treats it, and the exercises that actually help.
Read the guide →
GP, colorectal specialist or pelvic floor physiotherapist — who does what, how the diagnosis is actually made, and how to have the appointment without dread.
Updated 7 September 2026
How long a flare lasts, how long recovery takes, and why I am wary of the word cure — plus what the people who say they beat it actually did.
Updated 7 September 2026
Tailbone pain and levator ani syndrome overlap constantly because the same muscle attaches to the same bone. How to tell coccydynia apart, and who to see.
Updated 7 September 2026
Release exercises, heat, physiotherapy and biofeedback — what actually relieves levator ani syndrome, and why strengthening kegels usually make it worse.
Updated 7 September 2026
Like sitting on a golf ball. The full symptom picture of levator ani syndrome, what causes the pelvic floor to stay clenched, and how it is actually diagnosed.
Updated 7 September 2026