Hip pain can affect anyone. Possible causes include muscle injury, osteoarthritis, and pelvic floor conditions. In females, it can also occur during pregnancy.
Arthritis. Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are among the most common causes of hip pain, especially in older adults. Arthritis leads to inflammation of the hip joint and the breakdown of the cartilage that cushions your hip bones. The pain gradually gets worse.
Hip pain can sometimes be caused by diseases and conditions in other areas of your body, such as your lower back.
Endometriosis (when tissue similar to the uterus lining tissue grows outside the uterus) can cause pelvic tenderness, which some women describe as hip pain. Pain from the back and spine also can be felt around the buttocks and hip, Siegrist says.
Back pain can often times be mistaken for hip pain since the hip joint is so close to the spine. Generally, hip and back pain can range from a dull ache to sharp pain. This can affect your mobility and everyday activities.
A common symptom of ovarian cancer that can easily be brushed off is pain in your abdomen, hips, or pelvis. Some will feel discomfort during sex. You may also have back pain or an upset stomach.
Causes of hip pain
It might be caused by a sudden injury or a longer-lasting problem such as arthritis. Your symptoms might give you an idea what could be causing the pain. But do not self-diagnose, see a GP if you're worried.
Over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) may help ease your hip pain. Ice or heat. Use ice cubes or a bag of frozen vegetables wrapped in a towel to apply cold treatments to your hip.
Any hip pain that does not improve in a short period of time should be checked out by a qualified medical professional. First of all, minor muscle strain or ligament sprain can resolve which rest, but they can also develop into more chronic, nagging, long-term strain and repeated hip injury.
Hip pain has many causes besides cancer. Cancer of the hip can be a bone cancer, metastatic cancer (spread to the hip from somewhere else), or leukemia (a bone-marrow cancer). Symptoms of hip cancer include pain, swelling, fever, swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, and generally feeling sick.
Walking can help reduce stiffness, as the hip flexors are loosened up, which improves hip flexibility and range of motion. Reduce inflammation in the hips. Arthritis causes chronic inflammation, and walking as a form of exercise boosts blood flow to your hip joint cartilage, which helps decrease inflammation.
Symptoms of hip arthritis may include pain in or near the hip joint, stiffness, audible clicking sounds when moving the hip, and weakness. While hip arthritis is usually a chronic condition, there are treatments to help ease the symptoms and reduce further damage.
Hip pain often gets better on its own, and can be managed with rest and over-the-counter painkillers.
Symptoms of bursitis of the hip
Symptoms include joint pain and tenderness. You may also see swelling and feel warmth around the affected area. The pain is often sharp in the first few days. It may be dull and achy later.
The main symptom of trochanteric bursitis is pain at the point of the hip. The pain usually extends to the outside of the thigh area. In the early stages, the pain is usually described as sharp and intense. Later, the pain may become more of an ache and spread across a larger area of the hip.
While muscle pain is pain felt when the body is in motion, joint pain is more often felt when the body is at rest.
"Hip pain from sitting can be from poor posture, but if you're sitting 40 to 50 hours week over 5, 6 months or longer, you probably have decreased strength in your hips. When you do get up from your desk, your glutes, core and hip extensors will be weaker, and you don't feel as strong."
There are a few basic ways to know if you have hip bursitis or arthritis. If the pain you feel is sharp and severe before spreading out into an ache in the affected area, you may have hip bursitis. On the other hand, if your pain develops slower and is more painful in the morning, it may be hip arthritis.
Most ovarian cysts cause no symptoms and go away on their own. But a large ovarian cyst can cause: Pelvic pain that may come and go. You may feel a dull ache or a sharp pain in the area below your bellybutton toward one side.
Rarely, patients with significant abdominal pathology such as appendicitis and diverticulitis can present with hip pain. Diverticulitis presenting as hip pain is rare with only 15 reported cases in the literature.
The sciatic nerve runs under the piriformis muscle, a flat, narrow muscle in the buttocks. If your piriformis muscle spasms or becomes tight and compresses an area of the nearby sciatic nerve, it may cause a burning or shooting pain in the back of the hip that may travel down the leg.
Pain on the side of your hip is more likely from tendinitis, tight muscles, or another condition. Hip bursitis — an inflammation between your thighbone and nearby tendons — is commonly diagnosed when patients have pain on the outer side of the hip.