Shooting pain attacks in right groin area - female

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About me: 43 years old (44 soon)

Gender: Female

Weight: 9 stones

Height: 5'4"

Births: 3 children (now in late teens) by caesarean sections

Occupation: Admin

Hobbies: avid weightlifter for about 5 years but given up about 1.5 years ago

Daily exercise: dog walk for about 15 minutes

Problem: About 10 years ago I had, what I call my first attack. I was sat down on the grass in the park and got myself up first on my bent right leg to push the rest of my weight up on that leg. Suddenly, I lost my footing as the shooting pain my groin area was so severe I could have passed out. I was in absolute agony and had to keep completely motionless on the ground for what seemed like an eternity. Laying on my back, after about 5 minutes, I slowly tried to rock my leg in towards me and out away from me. When I dropped my leg away from me, I felt relief although after each attack the residual dull ache was present for about a day. Once I managed to get up on my feet, I found weight bearing on my right leg to be painful, to the point of having to limp for a while. After a while, the pain would go and I would then be able to walk normally. I didn't get this pain again for a good few years and recently, about 3 years ago, it started again. I went to my GP who sent me for an X ray which showed no abnormality. He then referred me physio and they couldn't detect anything either. The Physiotherapist felt that if I wore a hip brace (pull my hips tightly together) that may help. However, there was no hip brace available for a UK size 10. Recently, in the past few months, I get these attacks each time I am not "careful". By careful I mean, I can never put my weight on my right leg to support the rest of me, I can't swing my right leg too high for instance while crossing over a high gate on my dog walks, when I get out of my car, I have to swing both legs round and out of the car touching the ground and then lifting myself up on both feet (like old people do when they get out of cars). I am absolutely fed up with my condition. I worry about exercising, about gardening, about some type of work at my employers' as I had an attack that lasted 15 minutes only about a month ago. My life is miserable and my passion and hobby of weightlifting and exercise is on the backburner. I have no get up and go anymore to exercise when in the recent past I used to exercise almost daily and looking forward to it. What could be wrong? I have been reading up on femoral hernias but I am not quite sure if that is what I have. I have no lumps in my groin but I do have a lump in my left armpit (which I have had for about 6 months now) which has been investigated by bloods through my GP and haeamtologists who have both felt it was nothing to worry about. Any advice would be highly valued.

Thanks.

6 likes, 102 replies

102 Replies

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  • Posted

    Having just read Maureen's post, I had another look for acetabular labrum tears and I reckon this is very close to what I have been experiencing.

    Good to know that there are physiotherapy protocols which can help and that there are some doctors who know about this. One more step forward!

     

    • Posted

      My symptoms sound very similar, I really feel that we're very lucky to be able to confabulate with others to help us solve our issues. I'm going to look for a Doctor who's more into collaborating with me. I've not been suffering as many years as many of you, so feel rather lucky! 

  • Posted

    I completely understand and it's scary and frusterating. I wish I had advice as I am in the same boat over here in Canada. I've had this off and on for four years. Ultra sound to check for a hernia showed nothing and X-ray was the same. I have yet another appt w gp on the 5th at which time I'm assuming an MRI will be ordered. I am scared as this is extremely debilitating. I as well, have to lift my right leg to cross it or get in and out of my vehicle. My only reprieve is knowing I'm not alone as I often feel that waysad. Let's keep eachother posted...prayers your way. Marla.
  • Posted

    I do get very similar symptoms and I have a hernia under my navel .I  am 68 but still very active and do a lot of physical work,I walk 6 ks every morning and consider myself very fit and healthy so this "thing" is driving me crazy,I really don't trust doctors I bear a history of their mistakes.So I am still hunting for a possible name for my problem and a solution.

  • Posted

    My Osteopath found that the sciatic pain I had through my right buttock abd down the leg was being caused by the Psoas muscle pulling on my spine and not other things my Orthopaedic Surgeon kept investigating. By deep tissue massage he managed to get rid of that pain enough that I have stopped taking Gabapentin altogether. Recently I had the sharp pain in my left groin and he says this is the same muscle pulling where it joins the top of the femur. Since treatment it is alot better and intend going for more sessions with him. I find that an ostropath has so much more knowledge of these type of pain which can be treated without drugs or operations. Such a shame our GPs cannot refer patients to them and we then have to pay although if it gets rid of the problem it is worth it!
    • Posted

      Sorry was my left buttock and left groin!
  • Posted

    Hi you could have SI joint dysfunction. I had mine fused due to chronic pain for 26 years. Nothing ever showed up on scans or xrays. This op did ease my pain slightly but recently I had surgery for a prolapsed bowel and bladder and that had a big improvement on my pain as a prolapse can sit on the sciatic nerve. I didn't really have any symptoms but I felt like something wasn't right. Three Dr's said that there was nothing wrong and I didn't realise it would help with my hip and back pain . I have two kids aged 13 and 15 and looking back, I think I had this problem before I had my kids as my pain started when I was 16. I used to do a lot of lifting with my job and I think that is what caused my prolapse as when I was pregnant they found it hard to scan me because everything was so low so I think the damage was already done. I'm 42 now. It might be worth insisting on a referral to a gynecologist to rule it out. I have had lots of orthopaedic operations and procedures done over the years which I probably didn't need. If you used to lift weights that is a lot of pressure on your insides and sometimes we don't realise the damage it does until it's too late. I hope this helps

  • Posted

    Hello! After reading up on all these replies, I've been wondering if anyone has been checked for spinal stenosis, as this causes most (if not all) the symptoms everyone has mentioned. I had an x-ray done and now awaiting the MRI as of course nothing showed up on the x-ray. Spinal stenosis runs in my family and I have experienced every pain and then some that have been mentioned here. I just recently started researching this upper leg pain near my groin that I've recently experienced. It's awful. Any time after I'm sitting I go to stand up it hurts so bad I can't move for awhile! The sciatica I have doesn't help matters. Then just since yesterday I started getting this pain in the center of the upper area of my abdomen, and now I'm thinking gallstones. I figured I would wait until I have about 40 issues (I'm probably at about 36 lol) until seeing a doctor because just like most of these posts, I don't want a bunch of tests run on me just to be sent home telling me I have gas when I KNOW it's way more than that. I've kind of chalked all my symptoms up to the stenosis but until I get an MRI, I'm just in pain!

    • Posted

      Hi! After having seen four Orthopedists that looked at the report of my MRI Scan, then without giving me any type of examination they prescibed the drugs that everyone has mentioned, ie. Gabapentin, Arcoxia etc. Codeine, I was then told by one or two, "Oh, HIP pain? You've obviously got Arthritis in the hip" they requested X-Rays of hip , which YES! Showed Arthritis , but not much more difference than two years ago. Then I did an Ulra-Sound of the hip, which showed no inflamation or anything serious. I got sick of them all and went to the best most renowned Orthopedist in Rio De Janeiro, Dr. Deusdeth Nescimento. He took about an hour , was the first to really look at the MRI and said that I DIDN'T have a Herniated Disc, that it WASN'T my hips that were giving me all the pain. YES!! He thinks the Stenosis is IT! He's asked me to do an X-Ray standing on my toes , from the profile and the back. Also another lying down from the side. The last test will be The Neuromiogarphy lombosacral which shows nerve damage and eventually if an intervention is needed. Like widening the canal at the point where the nerve is being squashed. The MRI shows Stenosis , but all the doctors I've seen thought Ihat I had a Herniated Disc and he says "NO!" Since he has no records of having made anyone worse after operating and only operates if ABSOLUTELY necessary I have total confidence in this man. Next week I will try to do both exams, ladies , I'm in Brazil, we have National health & in spite of our problems it seems to work quicker than NHS. But all this is private because I've been in agony for the last ten months and was beginning to think that my life had ended, or I would end it. All my favourite pastimes have been made impossible, travel and the activities I so love put aside in favour of palliative physiotherapy. Now I' am taking a form of Amphetamine for ADHD(is that it?) o give me the energy to exercise a bit and try to go out once in a while. it's working, Called Venvance  , 30mgs. is good , he upped it to 50mgs and I was so revved up at the end of the day I had dark circles under my eyes. SoI split the dose and took it in water. Anyway , I'm hopeful that something will be decided after the results of the last two exams and the pile of money I've spent. I'm taking an anti-inflammatory before bed to help sleep. 

    • Posted

      Hey, After reading your response I am thinking having an x ray [which I have tried to avoid] is going to be useless,but this pain is increasingly crippling and I am very active  also I too have just had a woeful session of massive pain in my solar plexis with sweating and panting but I know for certain this is not gall stones as I finally had them removed two years ago after over forty years of periodical agony,so what could this be?
    • Posted

      Oh, Rhonda what I didn't mention was the last Doc. poked and pulled me. made me do all sorts of movements to check physical abilty and extent of movement. The X-Ray is really absolutely necessary to aiding the diagnosis.  Actuallt Innamorta says she's got Sciatica , but that doesn't exist. The Stenosis causes the Scaitice nerve to be compressed and eventually damaged and THAT causes pain and atrophy of the leg. The Sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body and runs along a channel (CANAL) down the spine , if it's being squashed , which is a narrowing of this channel, (Canal) then people call it Sciatica, but basically there's no such thing. The Stenosis is serious and this is the CORRECT name for narrowing of the canal which can be the cause of the pain. It doesn't always need to be operated , sometimes exercises can relieve the pain.  You need a GOOD doctor to pinpoint WHAT is causing the pain. Sometimes, like me, one can have several issues, but the others, like Arthritis, aren't causing the disabilty and dreadful pain. The exams are various and I think this site has a list of them somewhere. 

    • Posted

      Thanks Kookywit,I did have {sciatica} once but got rid of it with exercise,this pain is nothing like it,but I will huntg down a reliable doctor with a conscience to tell me what it is and yes I will still go get an x ray.

       

  • Posted

    I have been suffering from groin pain and as I visit an Osteopath regularly I asked for his opinion. He says it is the Psoas muscle pulling where it joins the top of my femur and he has given me deep massage at the painful place and I do groin stretches regularly. The problem is so much better now.
  • Posted

    Omgoodness!!! I have been experiencing the right groin pain for some months now. It just started out of the blue. It doesn't feel like a bone issue; it's more like a deep tissue thing or ligament; a pull. When I get up from sitting, I have to make sure it's done a certain way. While walking though, I never know when the discomfort will hit. It's a quick, sharp pain/pull that lasts only when it happens. It never radiates, nor does it stay. I said, I'm going to change my diet first, to see if whatever's degenerating, it can rebuild/repair itself. I too, am a woman that's had two Csections. Not sure of the correlation, but we all seem to have that commonality.

  • Posted

    I have the same probrlem ..was in my left leg now after  made epdiurals it was switched the pain to my right leg.  goes down  to knee burns on top of tfeet back of ankel and to groin.  Doctors pushing Gabapentin but does not work...  only think that stop it was  hydrocodone-acetaminophen but Doctors dont want to give it.  I bought a infared heat lamp it seems to help  got rid of my pain i middle of back  -same light the use when you go to a chriopractor called MLS  Therapy Laser.  But instead of going to them 3 times a week I looked up the bulb they use and its an infrared heat lamp ( i bought my off amazon)  read up on the benfits of it works on everything

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