Millions of men suffer from pelvic pain and related dysfunction annually. While discomfort and pain are defining characteristics, men can also experience associated sexual and urinary problems.
For many years the prostate was and often still is wrongly assumed to be the source of the pain and dysfunction - a view that has repeatedly been disproved by medical research. Drugs and surgery have largely failed to alleviate symptoms or address the cause.
Current research has shown that tension and dysfunction in the muscles of the pelvic floor play a significant and often primary role in the development of this condition and its subsequent symptoms, including pain. However, "Most physicians neither appreciate nor understand the havoc that chronic tension plays in the pelvic floor. Research has also shown that massage and bodywork can be a very effective treatment.
Though the section titles in the next paragraph are active links, I suggest that you scroll down and read through the sections in sequence rather than skipping around. Each section builds upon the previous one and the information as a whole is written as a narrative.
On the right side at the end of each section there are "back to top" links to return here to the main menu. Below the main sections you will find several " Did You Know? As you read through the text, hover your cursor over citation numbers to view the source in a pop-up text box or scroll to the bottom of the page for the full list. It is surprisingly common, affecting 5 to 10 percent of the male population and accounting for nearly two million office visits per year.
