If you are suffering from a pain below your lower abdominal region, you should look to search for the cause of the pain. While a few simple steps can cure some pains, other conditions can be pretty serious when it comes to sustaining pain in your groin and hip region.
Depending on the severity, groin pains are mainly divided into three types:
- 1st degree: It poses mild pain causing little lost of movement and strength.
- 2nd degree: It may involve some tissue damage, mild to moderate loss of strength, restricted movement and moderate pain.
- 3rd degree: It includes cases of complete muscle tears and severe loss of movement, strength and functions with severe pains.
Causes of groin pain
Groin pains can happen due to a lot of reasons. Determining the root cause is a job best left for your medical practitioner. Let us look into some of the most common causes of groin pain.
1. Swollen Lymph Node
Certain conditions such as infections, abscess, cancer or other inflammatory conditions can cause the lymph nodes to swell up. Cold, tuberculosis, mononucleosis and ear infections can be some of the most common reasons that can lead to the swelling of your lymph nodes and eventually, groin pain tumor or cancer.
2. Inguinal hernia
This is caused due to some protruding fatty tissues or intestines from a torn region or weak part of the intestines. Cough, undecided testicles, smoking, enlarged prostate, constipation and overexertion tends to be its primary causes.
3. Epididymitis
It is an infection causing inflammation in the epididymis. Bacterial infestations in the connective tube of the vas deferens and the testicles from the urethra or urinary bladder can cause empdidymitis.
4. Hip Osteoarthritis
If the hip joint wears away, one may suffer from conditions of hip osteoarthritis. It is very difficult for patients to move as the depletion of the cartilage makes it stiff and painful.
5. Hip labrum tear
If the labrum cartilage wrapping the ball from the hip joint gets torn, it can provide serious pains due to movement and any kind of pressure. The pain may extend from the groin region to the buttocks portion.
6. Kidney Stones
The deposition of tiny crystals within the kidney can cause a lot of other health problems as well apart from groin pain. The solid mass can cause testicle pain, nausea, bloodied urine, and many other issues.
Read Also: Kidney Stones Symptoms > 10 Kidney Stones Warning Signs!
7. Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer can be one of the primary reasons of groin pain. If your pain persists for more than a week, it is better to get diagnosed safe than repenting later.
8. Muscle pulls and strains
This is one of the most common reasons of groin pains that people suffer from. It may be due to sudden movement, jerks, or strains during an athletic activity. It is one of simplest ones that can be treated and cured immediately.
9. Other causes
There are a lot of other reasons that may be causing a groin pain. Some of them include hip osteonecrosis, hip fracture, femoral acetabular impingement, testicular torsion, nervous issues, osteitis pubis, infections and tumors among many others.
Symptoms
There are reasons you should seriously consider consulting with a physician if you suffer from:
- Severe pain in the groin
- Associated pains to the back and abdomen region and the chest side
- Sudden attacks of severe testicular pains
- Pain in the testicle along with swelling. It may be further accompanied by blood in the urine, vomiting, chills, nausea, fever and many other symptoms.
- If the pain in your testicular or groin region does not reduce in a week, it is not something you should ignore.
With the gifts of modern innovation to the medical industry, a proper diagnosis can help in the finding of the root cause of the pain. Your doctor can then take the necessary steps to deal with the problems as the diagnosis of the issue asks for.
Treatment
Options of lifestyle treatment
Depending on the cause of the pain, it is possible to get control of the pain using simple strategies at home. Suppose someone is suffering from a pain in the groin region due to an injury in the groin region during some sports activity. The physician would generally advise him to rest and apply icing packs to the affected area. Keeping the upper thigh wrapped up with an elastic compression can help to reduce the swelling and the pain in such cases.
But for cases like hip osteoarthritis, the patient will be advices to strictly avoid any kind of activities that can contribute to aggravating their pain. Such activities include climbing stairs, taking long walks, etc. For patients suffering groin pain due to epididymitis or any other testicular condition, icing and scrotal elevation can be a good option.
Medications
Many over-the-counter drugs are available at the local pharmacies for treating groin pains. Some medications include Tylenol and NSAID components. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen and ibuprofen can provide immediate help to pain and swelling. These medications are widely used for treating osteoarthritis, groin strain, osteitis pubis, hip lumbar tear or pinched nerve in the back.
Opioid medications can be used to treat conditions of severe pain that may result from kidney stones, infection in the hip joint or a fracture in the hip region. Cortisone steroid injections are often used to beat groin pains in conditions of severe osteoarthritis and pinched nerve in the back. Antibiotics also contribute to the list for the treatment of infection pains such as epididymitis and hip joint infection.
However, these drugs can have fatal effects on your health in the long run besides having other immediate side effects. These should be used only under the supervision of professional medical practitioner.
Physical therapy
This is one of the best remedies you can depend on for cases of groin pains due to hip related causes. What is more important is the timing to beat the underlying problems. These therapies work best if they are given at the required time of rehabilitation, such as a short therapy after an operation for hip replacement or a long term process for conditions like osteoarthritis.
Apart from that, exercises and stretching out can be great you to make your hip and leg muscles strong. It will also help to develop your flexibility and endorse you with a wide range of motions. Assistive waking devices can be a great way to deal with hip related issues. Crutches, canes and walkers can be some of the aids your therapist may request you to use.
Surgery
Certain conditions can only be cured through surgery. Those conditions are quite serious and emergency cases, as like torsions in the testicular region. Some other conditions that require surgery ultimately though not immediately include treatments of hip arthritis with hip replacement, labral tears with arthroscopic surgery and hip osteonecrosis treatment by core decompression surgery.
Prevention and Self Care
You can prevent pains in the groin region by following some simple techniques.
- Try to maintain your body weight to an optimum balance.
- Keep yourself engaged in sports with low impacts. Cycling and swimming can be great options as they do pose the hip region with less stress.
- Consult with your physicians to enquire about ways to prevent groin pain. Some examples include tai chi or balance training to eliminate one of the common reasons for hip fractures – falling down.
- Taking part in moderate exercise on a daily basis to reduce bone loss rate and keeping up the strength in the muscles.
- If you have been injured by accident, you must immediately stop participating and take rest to heal the pain.
- Warming up before physical activities is one of the best ways to free up the groin muscles to prevent sprains.
- Shoes with good support can be a great way to prevent pulls due to avoidable accidents.
- Hold patience if you are pushing the intensity of your workout schedule. Go at a rate of 10% rise per week.
- Stop working out if you are feeling any tightness in your groin or thigh area. If you have suffered a pull before, make sure to thigh muscle strengthening exercises on a daily basis.