Pudendal Nerve Assessment

Pudendal Nerve Entrapment Risk Check

Pelvic pain pattern checker

Pudendal nerve entrapment risk check

A structured symptom review based on the Nantes criteria. This tool estimates whether your pattern is worth discussing with a pelvic pain, urogynecology, urology, colorectal, neurology, or pain specialist.

This is not a diagnosis, triage service, or substitute for medical care. Seek urgent care for new weakness, numbness in the groin or saddle area, loss of bladder or bowel control, fever, cancer warning signs, or sudden severe pain.
Abstract clinical illustration of pelvic nerve pain assessment

Step 1

Your symptom pattern

Pain location
Nantes criteria
Pain is worse while sitting
Standing, lying down, or sitting on a toilet improves it
The pain itself wakes you from sleep
A clinician found objective numbness or sensory loss
A diagnostic pudendal nerve block relieved the pain
Common supporting symptoms
Features that point away or need prompt evaluation

Reference

Nantes criteria explained

The Nantes criteria are a clinical framework for pudendal neuralgia caused by pudendal nerve entrapment. The five essential criteria are: pain in the pudendal nerve territory, pain that is worse sitting, pain that does not wake the person at night, no objective sensory loss on clinical exam, and relief after a diagnostic pudendal nerve block.

Supportive features include burning, shooting, stabbing, tingling or numb-like pain, touch sensitivity, rectal or vaginal foreign-body sensation, worsening during the day, one-sided pain, pain around defecation, tenderness near the ischial spine, and abnormal selected neurophysiology tests.

Most common symptoms

  • Pain in the perineum, anus, rectum, vulva, clitoris, penis, or scrotum.
  • Burning, stabbing, shooting, aching, tingling, or electric pain.
  • Pain that is worse sitting and better standing, lying down, or sitting on a toilet seat.
  • Foreign-body, swelling, or pressure sensation in the rectum or vagina.
  • Urinary urgency or frequency, painful bowel movements, pain with sex, orgasm difficulty, post-ejaculatory pain, or erectile dysfunction.