Pain, interior thigh at hip

by Anne
(Newburg, MD)

At first I thought the pain was in the hip joint itself, then I thought I may have injured the femur bone. Inside the thigh, with certain movements...like after sitting, or after coming out of a yoga pose using hip flexion...unless I am very careful, it feels as if I will fall. It almost feels like something is out of joint.


I have some sciatica, so I watch what I am doing in forward bending. And I notice that in doing a shoulder stand a bit ago, I seemed to pull some muscles in my back...which was a surprise, so I stopped doing it for awhile. I am 62 years old, and am a yoga teacher. Any idea what might be going on?

Hello Anne,
For a start, lying on your back, pull first the good knee to the chest, and rotate the hip, remembering what you feel.

Now repeat with the naughty hip. Is there any difference. Is it more limited, stiffer, in any dimension, is the lotus for example more difficult (called the Patrick Fabere test), and is there pain?

Next, run your thumb down the inner thigh, starting high up at the pubic bone, do it quite hard, starting with the good leg, and the repeat with the sore leg. Is there a difference? Is the adductor magnus much more tender?

This is not likely related to your sciatica, affects the back and outer side of the leg. Doing a Femoral nerve stretch is difficult, it's quite a subtle test to see if the Femoral nerve or one of it's many branches that go into the groin, lateral and anterior thigh is being irritated.

Next follow the pubic bones from the hip bone (the iliac crest), towards the pubic symphysis. Is it painful?

As you can see there really are quite a lot of possibilities. A hip joint problem, a back problem radiating to the leg, muscular or capsular problem of the hip, and of course pathology. Cancer of the medial femur is not common, but I have seen it.

I'd follow the normal rules. When you know it's not getting better, get professional advice.

I hope this has contributed.

Dr B

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