What is this pain in my tailbone?

Symptoms:

You’re 7 months pregnant and you’ve got pain in your tailbone. It’s particularly bad if you stand for a long time. Your tailbone is very sore, you’re training for a triathlon and you’ve been doing a lot of cycle practising where you continually lean forward and stretch the base of your spine.

You coccyx is very painful after you had an accident where you fell backwards and sat down very hard on a stone kerb. It could be:

Coccydynia (literally pain in the coccyx). The coccyx becomes more flexible towards the end of pregnancy allowing it and your spine above it to bend. The weight of the baby can cause it to ache and become painful. Repetitive strain injury (RSI). This is because during cycling the muscles and ligaments around the coccyx are repeatedly stretched and strained.

You’ve injured your coccyx. It might be only badly bruised but in more severe injures it may be dislocated or fractured. Stop it:

Don’t stand, take the weight off your feet whenever you can, sleep with a pillow on your side to take the pressure off your coccyx. If it’s really bad you can take some paracetamol. You’ll have to ease up on your cycle training, I’m afraid, alter your handlebars so you can sit more upright, make sure you have a gel saddle.

Go to A&E for an X-ray. In the meantime, take painkillers.