Terrible hip pain

[Delabruche]

Posting here for traffic as I'm at my wits' end. For the last few years I have had steadily worsening hip pain, just like I had in pregnancy but now I'm perimenopausal. It is worse during the night and often wakes me up. I've had scans and xrays and apparently nothing is wrong- but it is! Dh used to give me a lift to work on his motorbike but I find it too painful to straddle the bike now. I love walking and running but I am finding the hip pain a barrier to doing more although I would say I am still quite active. I really feel that it MUST be related to whatever happens to your hips in pregnancy but GP doesn't agree. Any advice or tips very gratefully received!

Have you been to an osteopath?

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'll look into them. My gut feeling is it's some sort of misalignment/ weak muscle problem as it's both sides and I've started doing some postural training sessions which I hope will help but it's expensive! It definitely hurts to lie on the hip but if I do it helps a bit to have a pillow between my knees so it feels a bit like it's pulling on tendons (?) that's causing the pain. What sort of massager did you get @LeMoo ?

I think its called a shiatsu massager pillow. Has a strap for chairs so you can use it on lumber reason but I find I can use it anywhere on body no problems.

When my hip starts hurting like you describe in your latest post at night, I find doing pilates clams help to release it. Make sure your core is tight and tummy held in when you do them.

If you think it's misalignment (and it seems likely given it occurred last in pregnancy) then you are looking at Pelvic Girdle Pain which will not be massaged away and needs specialist manual therapy.

Also look at buying a memory foam lumbar pillow. I sleep on one every night and its done wonders for my hip pain. Also a thick foam mattress topper as it spreads the weight

Which is a good point. I didn't say massage would get rid of pain and that she needed to see a physio for proper assessment. However, massage can help with pain management.

Have you tried HRT - I found many of my debilitating aches massively lessoned after HRT started?

HRT is something else I'mooking in to. I'm abroad and it's very hard to find a gynae that is happy prescribing it plus you more or less have to pay to go privately except for screening and emergencies. It's getting a bit expensive as I'm already paying for postural therapy so I want to make sure the gynaecologist is at least open to HRT before paying!