Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Listen to Lernica. She knows what she's talking about. I've wasted about 2 more months of my life to pain because I asked my GYN for a referral to an orthopedist and she sent me to a sports medicine dr that totally disregarded me and wasted my time and money. He ordered a MRI without contrast and even the hip specialist said today "this is the wrong scan." But thanks to Lernica I found a hip specialist and met with him today. He listened to me and told me that even though the x-rays he took today didn't show pathology, that he thinks I probably do have a labral tear and he thinks it's good that I am pursuing the hip's role in this pain.

He wants to do a steroid injection in my right hip on Friday morning. He said if my pain is lessened then we know it's the hip, and we can proceed with an arthrogram. If it doesn't lessen the pain, then we need to look at the adductors. I'm hopeful at this point and looking forward to the injection on Friday.

Hi all,

So ... I had arthroscopic labral repair surgery yesterday. I spent the night in hospital and have just returned home. So far the hip/surgical pain is fairly moderate and, for the moment at least, I have no burning or stinging in the vulval area, and no clitoral pain or sensitivity ... which have been my main PN type issues. Too early to tell yet of couse, but I'm hopeful that this will be a end to both my hip pain and my PN issues. The surgeon gave my some photos of my hip showing the pre and post surgery conditions. Pre surgery, the problem is pretty obvious. The picture shows what the surgeon described as a "very significant, large tear in the labrum. It pretty much just looks like a big flap of tissue sticking out where it shouldn't be. He removed the flap and "anchored the repair". He also shaved about 2mm of the head of the femur to "ensure good, smooth movement of the ball inside the socket" He told me that I had made the right choice when I decided on surgery. Apparently, the injury would certainly not have healed on it's own. He said that he was hopeful that ALL of my problems would be solve with the surgery (vulval included). I am certainly hoping so too. Anyway ... I'm going to rest up like a good little patient. I will keep you all posted on my progress.

Sneetch, this sounds VERY promising!
Keep up with whatever rehab you have to do otherwise just take it easy and let the healing do its job.
I look forward to hearing more on your progress!

Lernica - I had the pelvic MRI and the radiologist said another MRI would be helpful. But I have no hip symptoms. I sure as heck would rather hip surgery than PNE surgery so will try and get a referral to a hip orthopedist.

Thank you for answering my questions, folks.

Anna

Sneetch,

Please be prepared for a LONG rehab. It was 12-weeks before I could tell that I was definitely getting better. Be prepared to use crutches for up to 8 weeks. Slow and steady is the key. Like all post-surgical recoveries, you will have many ups and downs and at first many more bad days then good. Try to keep up with the PT regime as well as you can to minimize internal scarring and to encourage blood flow into your affected ligaments and muscles so that they can recover their full strength and mobility.

There is alot of good post-op advice on Hip Chicks Unite, as well as many people who have been where you are now. So don't hesitate to post a question there if anything concerns you on your road to recovery.

Keeping my fingers crossed that you have found the solution to both your hip and your perineum pain, and that you have a speedy and uneventful recovery!

"New childbirth injury on the rise, Hinsdale doctors find", by Liz Hoffman, Chicago Parent, September 1, 2010: http://www.chicagoparent.com/magazines/ ... ctors-find
http://tinyurl.com/bsm5yy9

The author reports that: "emerging data pinpoints a specific type of hip injury, known as a labral tear, that is especially common among women during and around childbirth. Often misdiagnosed as a hip strain, a pulled groin, a hernia or even sciatica, a labral tear is an injury to the rubbery tissue that cushions the hip's ball-and-socket joint."

Wow, I never thought that my labral tears couldn've been the result of childbirth. I had three very long and difficult vaginal childbirths with vacuuum extractors.

Male 59 years old. Have had both hips done. One in August 2012, one in October 2012. My experiences. I never had hip pain only PN pain. The arthrogram MRI showed only possible labral rears. When they got in there, the tears were complete and extensive (so arthrograms do not always show the real story) and my hips were a mess. Xrays showed CAM type femoral impingement. Surgery was about 3.5 hours per hip. Recovery from surgery was much better than I have read,: was off crutches in 2 days, needed no pain meds, only a few stitches. Total recovery took about 5 weeks. Now I wait and see if PN slowly subsides. So far no real positive signs of that happening however I have heard it can take some number of months if it works. I have tried everything else from PT to, nerve blocks to coil embolization of pelvic variscosities to drugs with no result. I will post again in three months on the end result of the dual hip scopes. Until then, I remain, in PN hell, like you.

Davemon,

I too had double hip surgeries. The turning point for me was at post-op week 12 of the second scope. So you still have a ways to go! Key to my recovery was pelvic PT which was essential to settling down my spasming hip rotator/pelvic floor muscles, e.g. obturator internus. In fact I continue these treatments on a weekly basis.

Also important was to start to walk as soon and as often as I could, so that my pelvic floor muscles could regain their tone, and so that there was good blood flow to the damaged pelvic floor muscles. I had not walked for two years so they were in really bad shape. Finally, I did alot of pelvic floor stretches (see Amy Stein's book) to help lengthen the muscles which had become short from unuse. Massaging my IT band and glutes with a foam roller also helped. I continue to do all this on a daily basis.

In my experience, hip surgery alone will not make one better. As always, the most successful strategy is to combine a number of different therapies including PT, exercise, good diet, good supplements, low-stress, and appropriate medications for pain relief.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, and looking forward to your next post!

Wow, I am so excited and amazed that so many pudendal-hopers are finding hip pathology and getting it fixed! I am jealous that some of you have already had your surgeries, I am still waiting to see my OS again. I was supposed to see him again Friday, but it is imposisble to get to HSS in NYC right now. (due to to the hurricane) I have it rescheduled for the 13th. My health insurance runs out in February when I turn 26, so I want to get it done asap.

I hope that many people on this site who may have hip issues continue to get their hips checked. Maybe someday this connection will be more widely recognized and people will not suffer for so long. Yay for progress, and I know/hope that you all will continue to make progress in the various stages of your treatments and recoveries.

In hip and PN solidarity,
Jackie

Have arthritis in both hips and what looks like a torn labrum in the right hip. Just got an arthrogram on the left hip today but that side is worse so I assume its torn in there too. My surgeon wants to do the left side once he gets the evidence. He didn't really know of any connection between PN and labral tears other than to say that nerves can be aggrevated by the overcompensation from damaged hips. I've now had injections on both sides with no decrease in PN pain. Definitely going to give it a shot though. As a fire fighter i'm going to need to get my hips fixed anyway. I just hope the PN can be cured with it. I am encouraged by some of the other posts on here. Not looking forward to 6 weeks on crutches though. Especially since I live on the 3rd floor of my building with no elevator. If only I had long golden hair to let down to the street from my window.

Elmwood,

If you're considering hip surgery please join Hip Chicks Unite.(Yes men are members too!) They have alot of good advice about hip surgery, both about good surgeons, and about recovering from it. One thing I would wonder about is WHY you have OA in both hips (unless you're over 50). If you're young, sometimes it's a symptom of hip dysplasia. If that's the case, you need a different kind of surgery, not a scope, to relieve you of your hip pain. A scope will not help and may in fact make things worse.

Is your PN on your worse hip side? Or both?