Can you get a pilonidal cyst during pregnancy, and how should it be treated?
Among pregnant women, especially in the third trimester, what is the incidence of pilonidal cyst/sinus disease, and what treatments (conservative versus surgical) are safe and effective during pregnancy?
How people search for this, in their own words
- “pilonidal cyst pregnancy”
- “pilonidal cyst during pregnancy”
- “pilonidal cyst during pregnancy 3rd trimester”
- “pilonidal cyst pregnancy treatment”
- “are pilonidal cysts common during pregnancy”
- “pilonidal cyst affect pregnancy”
Evidence review in plain language · compiled 2026-10-13 · checked 2026-10-13 · next 2026-11-13 · automated review, how it works
What the evidence says
Bottom line
No study has looked at how common pilonidal cysts are during pregnancy or which treatments work best for them.
The only related record found is a single case report about a woman with a bladder-pain device, not a pregnant woman with a pilonidal cyst. It cannot answer how often this condition occurs in pregnancy, how it should be treated, or whether it affects labor and delivery.
How certain
Very low
The 1 human study found measure a related question rather than this one, so they can only be read indirectly.
What it shows
Not studied
No study has measured this outcome in people with this condition.
- study found
- 1study found
- randomised trials
- 0randomised trials
- people studied
- 1people studied
- years covered
- 2012–2012years covered
What the research shows
Symptom resolution (pain, swelling, discharge) during pregnancy
No study has measured whether pilonidal cyst symptoms improve, worsen, or stay the same during pregnancy.
Not studied
Need for surgical drainage or excision before delivery
No study has looked at how often pregnant women with this condition need surgery before giving birth.
Not studied
Labor and delivery complications
No study has measured whether a pilonidal cyst changes labor or delivery.
Not studied
Wound healing time
No study has measured how quickly a pilonidal wound heals in pregnant or postpartum women.
Not studied
Recurrence rate postpartum
No study has tracked whether pilonidal cysts come back after delivery.
Not studied
Rate of abscess formation or systemic infection
No study has measured how often this condition turns into an abscess or spreading infection during pregnancy.
Not studied
Important limitations
- The one record found is a case report about a woman with an implanted bladder-pain device, not a pregnant woman with a pilonidal cyst herself — it is only loosely related to this question.[1]
- The only human report is a single case of a baby born with a pilonidal sinus to a mother who used a sacral nerve stimulator during pregnancy; the authors state it is unknown whether the stimulator caused this, and the case says nothing about pilonidal cysts occurring in pregnant women themselves.[1]
Why people try it
- Sitting for long periods, weight gain, and skin friction in late pregnancy can make tailbone-area skin problems more noticeable, so people search to see if pregnancy itself is the cause.
- Worry about needing surgery close to delivery, or about anesthesia and healing while pregnant, makes people look for pregnancy-specific guidance.
- Discomfort sitting or lying down in the third trimester can be mistaken for, or worsened by, a pilonidal cyst, prompting searches for reassurance.
- Concern that a tailbone-area cyst could interfere with an epidural or with positioning during labor drives some of these searches.
What the studies found
- Mixed or unclear1 · 100%
What kind of studies
- Case series1 · 100%
The studies that decided it
El-Khawand et al. 2012
Sacral nerve stimulation during pregnancy: case report and review of the literature
Baby born with pilonidal sinus; cause unclear.Case seriesVery low qualityRelated question
1 people2012
the second child was born with a pilonidal sinus and the first child developed a tic disorder, but it is unknown if these were caused by the stimulator
- Who was studied
- a 25-year-old woman with severe bladder pain who had a sacral nerve stimulator and became pregnant twice
- What they received
- keeping a sacral nerve stimulator activated during pregnancy for bladder pain control
- Compared with
- no comparator; device deactivation was advised but not followed
- Main outcome
- effects on the babies and on symptom control
- Quality
- this is a single patient case report so it cannot show whether the device caused the problem or if it was chance.
- Limitations
- single case, no control group, cause of the pilonidal sinus and tic disorder not established, device use was against medical advice
Taken word for word from the abstract
- n
A 25-year-old woman who had a sacral nerve stimulator for severe interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome had 2 successful pregnancies.
- population
A 25-year-old woman who had a sacral nerve stimulator for severe interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome had 2 successful pregnancies.
- intervention
Against medical advice, she kept the stimulator activated for symptom control during the pregnancies.
- comparator
we recommend that women of reproductive age with a sacral nerve stimulator be advised about contraception and that the device should be deactivated before or as soon as pregnancy is confirmed.
- primaryOutcome
The first child was later diagnosed with chronic motor tic disorder, and the second had a pilonidal sinus at birth.
- result
Whether this outcome is related to the neurostimulator is unknown.
Female Pelvic Med Reconstr Surg · PMID 22453325 · Read it on PubMed ↗
All 1 studyEvery study that answered the question, with its design, size and result.
How we searchedThe exact query, the date it ran, and what came back — so you can run it yourself.
- Searched
- PubMed · ClinicalTrials.gov · Crossref on 2026-10-13
- The exact search — paste this into PubMed to repeat it
("Pilonidal Sinus"[Mesh]) AND ("Pregnancy"[Mesh] OR "Pregnancy Complications"[Mesh] OR pregnan*[tiab] OR "third trimester"[tiab])- PubMed expanded that to:
"Pilonidal Sinus"[MeSH Terms] AND ("Pregnancy"[MeSH Terms] OR "Pregnancy Complications"[MeSH Terms] OR "pregnan*"[Title/Abstract] OR "third trimester"[Title/Abstract]) - What came back
- 11 records found · 11 read · 1 answered the question
- Included
- Human, animal or laboratory studies reporting an outcome relevant to the question
- Excluded
- Records about a different condition or intervention
- Records reporting no outcome
- Retracted publications, which are listed but excluded from every count
- Limits
- Details were read from abstracts, not full papers, so anything reported only in a paper's methods section is not captured here.
- Fields were read from abstracts, not full text, so detail reported only in a paper's methods section is not captured.
- Evidence strength is adapted from the GRADE framework. It is not a GRADE assessment and was not produced by a GRADE panel.
Automated evidence review — PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, Crossref. Search strategy, grading rules and the checks that must pass before anything publishes were written by Allen Kamrava, MD, MBA, FACS, FASCRS, colon & rectal surgery, Beverly Hills. The pages themselves are compiled by software running that method and are not read one by one before publication — saying otherwise would be the one claim here that could not be checked.
- 11records came back from the search
- 11were read
- 1actually answered the question
Common questionsShort answers, drawn from the same studies.
- Can you get a pilonidal cyst during pregnancy?
- It's possible, since pilonidal cysts can affect anyone with hair, friction, and pressure near the tailbone — pregnancy involves weight changes and more sitting that could plausibly matter. But no study has actually measured how often this happens in pregnant women, so there's no real number to give you.
- Can a pilonidal cyst during pregnancy in the third trimester cause problems during labor or delivery?
- This hasn't been studied. No trial or case series has looked at whether a pilonidal cyst changes labor, delivery, or epidural placement, so there's no evidence either way.
- Are pilonidal cysts common during pregnancy?
- No one knows. The only record found on this topic was a single case report about something else entirely — a bladder-pain device, not a pilonidal cyst in the mother — so there's no study that counts how common this is in pregnancy.
- What is the treatment for a pilonidal cyst during pregnancy?
- There's no study comparing conservative care (like warm compresses or drainage) with surgery specifically in pregnant women. If you have symptoms, your doctor or midwife will need to make a judgment call based on general pilonidal cyst care and how far along you are, since the research doesn't give a clear answer.
- Does a pilonidal cyst affect my pregnancy?
- No study has measured this. If you're worried about a cyst near your tailbone while pregnant, the safest step is to have it examined rather than search for an answer that the research doesn't yet have.
This is information, not advice
This page summarises published research. It cannot tell you what is happening in your own body, and evidence changes. If something is bleeding, painful, or new, it is worth being looked at — that is a different question from the one on this page, and a better one to bring to a consultation.
Contact the officeAutomated evidence review — PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, Crossref. Search strategy, grading rules and the checks that must pass before anything publishes were written by Allen Kamrava, MD, MBA, FACS, FASCRS, colon & rectal surgery, Beverly Hills. The pages themselves are compiled by software running that method and are not read one by one before publication — saying otherwise would be the one claim here that could not be checked.