PNE is so rare and understanding of it is so recent that in most cases it goes misdiagnosed or undiagnosed for years. As one article says: quot;Most patients felt hopelessly isolated as the world's only victim of a malady without a name. Patients wondered whether their imagination was the source, but they knew it was not. They report that acquiring a name for their affliction and contacting other sufferers gave important help even while symptoms persisted.

Dr. Renney - The main symptom is pain with sitting. You feel great in the AM until you sit for coffee, or drive to work. You get better with lying down. The pain is in the distribution of the pudendal nerve....genitalia, perineal or rectal. It can be any combination of these areas depending on the part of the nerve entrapped.

PNE is caused by entrapment of the pudendal nerve at any of various places on the nerve. Nerve entrapment occurs when a nerve is constricted for some reason and responds by inflammation, scarring, or thickening. All these cause nerve diameter to increase and the nerve to misbehave. The initial constriction is caused by pressure or trauma of some type or an unknown reason.

Chris R., a PNE sufferer and medical student at the Medical College of Georgia, US, and now a doctor, had this to say in 2002: quot;Many PNE patients are originally diagnosed with one or multiple vague pelvic pain disorders before getting the correct diagnosis. The most common diagnoses are: prostatodynia, nonbacterial prostatitis, idiopathic vulvodynia (idiopathic means unknown cause), idiopathic orchialgia, idiopathic proctalgia, idiopathic penile pain, Levator ani syndrome, and coccydynia.

Note that Prof Robert's article says "The anatomic study we performed led us to regard the distal motor latency of the pudendal nerve as the examination of choice."

If you have stress incontinence, you may leak a small to medium amount of urine when you cough, sneeze, laugh, exercise, or do similar things. If you have urge incontinence, you may feel a sudden urge to urinate and the need to urinate often. With this type of bladder control problem, you may leak a larger amount of urine that can soak your clothes or run down your legs.