It's also known as proctalgia fugax:
Proctalgia fugax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I've had it on and off for almost 20 years. It hits me about once a month, and in its earliest years, was almost always triggered by an orgasm. Now, though, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, but the worst episodes are the ones that come in the middle of the night - because the pain will wake me up, and keep me up for at least a half-hour; sometimes over an hour. The silver lining is that for males, it's usually accompanied by a world-class erection. Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly put you in the mood to do anything with it, though . . . . .
The bad news is that there's no cure.
The good news is that other than its symptoms, there are no ill effects on your general health (barring the occasional loss of sleep). And if it's any consolation, I can say that in my case, both the length of the episodes and the severity of the pain has lessened with age. I used to get it on one side, and it would take about 20-30 minutes for the pain to go away; then it would start all over again on the other side. For the past few years, though, it seems to only happen on one side.
Two drugs that sometimes help are muscle relaxants (I use Soma) and anti-spasmodics (I use Levsin) The Levsin is faster-acting, as it's not swallowed; but put under the tongue and absorbed more quickly. If it happens in the middle of the night, though, the Soma will help you get back to sleep faster.
Like the articles say, a warm bath may help, but then again, we're talking about pain episodes that last 20-60 minutes, so who's to say it wouldn't be gone by the end of a warm bath anyway?
I even had one gastroenteroligist tell me to bend over, grab my ass cheeks and pull them apart as much as possible - that will sometimes stretch the muscle and end the cramp. Sometimes it works; sometimes not.
Have her talk to her doctor. Perhaps she can get some medicinal relief. Or better advice than mine.