i am a surgeon that specializes in hernia repair. i have practiced for twenty years. groin pain without a detectable swelling or bulge quite often is not a hernia and does not require surgery. although sham surgery will often result in a ‘cure’ because it forces the patient to rest long enough recover from the muscle strain or tendinitis. the term ’sports hernia’ is a garbage term that doesn’t accurately describe anything. it will join other vague and nonspecific medical ‘diagnoses’ such as fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic fatique syndrome as labels given to medical or psychological ailments that can’t be diagnosed by objective means. my advice to someone suffering from groin pain with or without a definite hernia is to see a board certified surgeon that specializes in hernia surgery.

i was diagonosed with a sports hernia in september of 2006, i’ve been doing abosulutly nothing but sit on the couch since and its the middle of january. i’ve had no relief whatsoever so having ‘junk surgery’ to sit around is a load of crap. i’ve been sittin around for months no with no relief.. how do u explain that?

Unbelievable how little anyone knows about this condition. I’m 45 and have been playing hockey for 40 years and soccer for 35. I’m the poster boy for Athletic Pubalgia, but here in Southern California I can’t seem to find any experts on this topic. There supposedly is a Women Doc in Germany who is the European expert, but in the states the Mac Daddy on this topc is William Meyers out of Drexel in Philly. He’s the open surgical approach guy. There is a Vascular surgeon out of Wisconsin named Cattey who uses a Laproscopic approach, with some success. There is also a guy in MN named Ben Pierce, who has taken over for the now retired Joesting. I visited with Pierce who looked me over, but didn’t ask for any imaging. He concluded that since I’m not an elite athlete (I’m actually an elite coach potatoe that plays hockey and soccer), that I should go home and rest for two months to see how this improves, if it doesn’t I should come back and go under the knife.
The strange thing is that this is largely exploratory – they put you under and then they go in to see what’s wrong. You’re not really involved in the decision – which seems backwards.

Anyhow, does anyone know of any experts on this here in Southern California?

I have been diagnosed with a sports hernia yes i am a women. I know about 3 top surgeons at that field but it is really difficult for me to decide who to go with, can anyone help? my pelvis is completly screwed up, my injury has been there for 21 months undiagnosed

I would hope that the surgeon a patient chooses to repair an inguinal tear would be skilled at all major techniques of inguinal tear repair and would use information about the tear to select the most optimal means of surgical repair. I realize that’s perhaps assuming too much intelligence on the physician’s part but some doctors out there must already have the full set of skills. The problem is whether that doc is on you insurance plan!

I recently had sports hernia surgery. I suffered with pain for over a year and a half in my lower left abdomen and groin and i kept on going back to the same hernia surgeon who said just had a torn stomach muscle and to take a year off of athletics. Took a year off, and no improvement what so ever. I found Dr. William Meyers name, and I thank the lord that I did. Not only did he find a huge tear in my stomach that was there, but he also diagnosed me with crohns disease. I am 2 weeks post op and am feeling better every day. I highly recommend Meyers, he is the guru, and is probably one of the most intelligent and caring people I have ever met. If you are having symptoms, google him and give his office a call, they are very nice. I am from Texas, and the travel was well worth it. If you have any questions, email me at mason.mitchell@ttu.edu

About a two years ago, I came home one day and rushed up to my wife and picked her up off the floor.

I haven’t been the same since…

Immediately, I felt a stab like pain in my lower left abdomen in the region of my inguinal canal. Like a man I walked it off but it was nagging me. As the days went by the nagging slowly spread to my left testicle. The pain was slow and steady progressing every day and then on the night before things became horrible, I went for a run or to be more precise a overdrawn sprint. Well after the sprint I knew something was terribly wrong and later that night my left side was killing me. 3 days later my right side felt horrible as well. I’ve had every test and scan in the book and nothing comes up.

Could this be a sports hernia and does anyone know where one can be found in NYC?

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The gold standard for hernia repair is at the Shouldice Hospital outside of Toronto. Hernia repairs are all they do – about 7,000 per year. It is not a “tension-free” repair and is open (not laporoscopic) surgery. Cost as of Oct 2007 = @ CN$3,600.

Let’s try that again…

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=559820

Hope you feel better.

My 15 year old brother was recently diagnosed with a sports hernia and is slated for surgery in a few weeks, the doctor who’s performing the surgery is doing it the old fashion way through an open incision. This means recovery time is 3 to 4 months, as appose to minimally invasive surgery using the Laparoscopic technique which has a 4 to 6 week recovery period. Does anyone know an Surgeon in the Rochester or western NY area who performs the Laparoscopic Sports Hernia Surgery???? I’m desperate, PLEASE HELP. Can someone please point me in the right direction…….the Dr. Performing the surgery in DR. Peacock……………any kind of help would be great, thank you.

california doctor – Dr. Craig Smith out of marina del rey

I am a 55 year old female who suffered for about 3 months until diagnosed by a sports medicine ortho doc. He sent me to Ray Onders, MD, University Hospitals, Case Medical Center. His number is 216-844-5797. He operated on me in Jan. 2007 and I felt instantly better. I am now having a recurrence due to over stretching at my gym. I am wondering if I could have torn the incision. Good luck. He is the same guy who operated on Christopher Reeves for his breathing.

I am a 37 year old professional athlete and teacher who has struggled for the last 2 months with chronic groin pain. My symptoms began slowly and have become progressively worse. The p[ain I feel won’t allow me to maintain my workouts that I desperately need as an athlete my age. Daily activities such as shoveling snow, standing an putting my pants on and even moppoing the floor cause me pain and discomfort. There is no such thing as a pain-free day, but some days are better than otheres. However, if I over do it, I am unable to move for the next 2 to 3 days and I’m back to square one. I had seen a myriad of doctors who couldn’t diagnose what was wrong with me. They all said prescribed the same thing…rest and anti-inflammatories….After two months of rest and anti-inflamatories, I have become progressively worse instead of better. So I finally met with a Orthapaedic doctor in my area who has excellent credentials and deals strictly with professional athletes (Former team doctor for the Padres and current team doctor for the IHL Manchester Monarchs. Within minutes of my first visit he had diagnosed me with a bilateral”sports hernia”. He referred me to the Monarchs team surgeon with whom I will be meeting next week. He has had phenominal success with his athletes, all whom have returned to full action within 6 to 8 weeks of surgery. There is no “rest” involved in the rehab of this injury (Like J. Lampe suggests). I have been told that there will be an aggressive rehab that begins only a few days after surgery. If anyone would like inoformation, I’d be glad to share and I’ll post my results after my surery takes place…and to Dr. J. Lampe I am truly thankful that you’re not my doctor, otherwise I may never see the field again, I’d be sitting on the coach watching others play instead!

my son has sports heria in the uk it is also called gilmores groin if you search google in the uk type in gilmores groin you will find much information also 108 portal you will find the surgeon who developed this procedure for repair

i am 17 and during the basketball season i began feeling the symptoms of a sports hernia. i went to the doctor and he said that is what i have and to take a few weeks off. I did that and it began feeling better. Then I got sick and had a real bad cough and it all started hurting again. for a few weeks i would play off and on and the symptoms would come and go but the pain was and is not when i actually play, it is when i am seated or sitting for a long time. I am trying to rest for another couple weeks but the small pain in my pelvis and groin do not seem to want to fully go away. My concern is that it is not a sports hernia because it seems like people have the pain while they are doing certain activities and my pain is when i am stationary. if someone could tell me why or any possible reasoning in this it would make my life a lot easier.

thanks for the help

I’m a 17 year old athlete and have just been “unofficially” diagnosed with a sports hernia. Is there any way to officially diagnose this problem? I have been having pain for over 5 months. Rest doesnt seem to make it better at all. The only temporary relief for me is Ibuprofin. Can somebody email me back with more information…thank you {chi2cali08@yahoo.com

I HAVE the answer to this. I suffered all the symptoms (groin pain testicular pain etc etc). for 18 months. Was examined by the great Mr Gilmore himself (definitely not a nice guy, ZERO empathy for his patients) and told, yes it was/no it wasn’t his thing. Had all the scans etc etc, the most expensive tests around.
Having almost resolved to a life of pain I went to see my local osteopath about an unrelated problem, mentioned the groin pain, he diagnosed it in three seconds and fixed it in another five. I’m not joking!
In all probability your sacrem is stuck out of line. My laymans understanding is that because this is mis-aligned, the tendons that pass through it pull on your testicles/ groin and cause the pain. Simply applied and totally painless pressure from him fixed it. He tells me it is always missed by the scans as they are looking for trickier stuff.
BUT WAIT. It gets better. Once it has been stuck it is likely to happen again. You may have a weakness there. But do the following and you can fix it yourself.
Its called the frog. Lay flat on your back. Draw up your knees until your feet are flat on the floor. Now let your knees open and fall apart sideways (Like a frog). No need to push down, just spread ‘em as far as they will easily go. This rotates the hip in the sockets and frees everything up.
I am NOT medical and this may not fix you. But it has fixed half a dozen buddies who, like me, were pretty thrilled at the result.
If you are really grateful send ten bucks to [link]payneduplex@aol.com[/link]. Every 10 bucks goes to my osteopath.

Really hope this sorts it

ok so im in the same boat as most of you, i think. It started around 6 months ago i was running and i felt a pain near my hip bone and i thought nothing of it as it was not that bad, After 4 months of this pain i went on holiday for 3 weeks. Then when i got back i had a back cold and was sneezing a lot, then from nowhere i felt a shooting pain from my left abdomen from my left testicle, i havent experienced the shooting pain again but for about one month now i have had pain in my testicles, lower abdomen (both side) and my groin. Im very worried about this and would like to know if any of you had similar symtoms, thanks a lot tom. Please email me anyone tombarrett6@hotmail.com.

hi there,
since january 2008 i had been dealing with awful pains in pelvic area more on the right side.I went thorough so many dr. in canada antibiotics, ultrasound even laparoscopic surgery,we were blamiming ovaries,even i have slight endometriosis but my surgeon said this pain should not be there anymore.I pointed to my family dr that over christmas 07 I had been travelling a lot a carried heavy suitcases and felt like i pulled muscle even mentioned hernia.But family dr in canada were like REALLY!!!!…so pure i went through laparoscopy and no help.i have pain for over 10 months,I lost many months to be treated like I have gynecological problem. I don’t have bulge but after any activity like walking or lifting, feel inflammatroy pain right side,I can’t stand straight even taking bus and standing, walking is painful and lifting……………is there any hope for me that i get better

I am a female distance runner. I suffered pain in my left groin, tight abdominal muscles, weakness and inability to train properly for almost a year. Despite long rests and intensive physio to work on the muscles in my hip and groin which had siezed up, I was getting gradually worse. Eventually I went to see a physio who worked with the UK athletics team. He diagnosed an inguinal hernia through medical history and palpatation on my first visit. I saw a surgeon for an ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis and had surgery two weeks later to repair a tear in my external oblique. This was done under local anasthetic and lasted for around 40mins. I left hospital around 3hrs later (my partner drove me home), and I took paracetamol/diclofenac for the next 72hrs, but that was as much as I needed. I walked for 1hr unhindered the day after surgery and walk/jogged 10 days post surgery.
That was 8 weeks ago and the difference is incredible. I am now running pain-free, I ran my first 5K six weeks post surgery, and back to running 35-40 miles a week. I don’t hobble when I get out of bed now !!
So there are good surgeons out there – I wondered if I was doing the right thing going for surgery, but I would never have felt likr this if I didn’t.

Ok guys i’ve posted on here before, I found out what I had it is called a spaghetti hernia it is one of the most rare hernias found and can not be diagnosed by a ultrasound as it is close to the rectus region, I’m 6 weeks post op now and just a lil testicle pain but besides that everything is basically back to normal. I hope this helps some people and if you were feeling similar pains to me enquire about this to you doctor.

Thanks Tom

Gyasi -

Thanks for your good post about your experiences with sports hernia.

I have similar problem I think, and want to avoid surgery at all costs.

I’m 58 yrs old, have been playing basketball once or twice a week. About 9 months ago I felt a little something give during a game, but I’ve been playing ever since, with no problems. My only symptom was some pain in my lower abdomen when I went to do situps, so I quit doing situps. But everything was fine. Plenty of full court basketball.

Then a month ago, one day I did some situps, light weight lifting and uphill bicycle and the next day I had sore groin and stomach getting out of bed, and knew something was very wrong. After about a month of no sports (only walking), I don’t see much progress, and worry that my muscles in the pelvic area may be getting weaker without exercise.

I’m wondering, Gyasi, how are you doing? What kind of PT seems to help you best?

Thanks.

Can you tell me what your symptoms were like? I am trying to figure out if I have a sports hernia myself.

I too, had pain in my right groin (could be the left) and complained for seven months. None of my DRs could find anything until my whole stomach hurt. Then I had chills at night a couple of times a week. Finally one DR said do you think you have what many refer to as a sports hernia? He sent me to a laprascopic Dr who had me stand and cough. After a cat scan had shown nothing, he found it and did surgery two weeks later. I no longer have to lift my leg in and out of a car and am walking normally. It has been six weeks. I walked for five minutes on the hour for eight hours after I got back from the hospital where I was for a total of three hours. I have never needed pain medicines. I felt better right after the surgery, much better then before. Amazing. I am over 60 and just a regular walker. Not an athletic type of person especially. These hernias can come in pairs but mine didn’t.

To anyone who has had surgery with Dr. Meyers in Philadelphia: How is it coming along? Is the progress steady? Setbacks? Recovery tips? I’ve classic A. P. symptons–I think tear at the home erect/public bone, but we’ll see. Anything you can share will be greatly appreciated. You know how quickly an active, great life is changed by this.

Thank you for your time. Please contact me at: slipanovich@yahoo.com

Jeana replying again from my last post Oct. 25th 2007. Now it is June 2009. I had got the surgery papers from previous inguinal hernia surgeries. Yes, for sure I did have a hernia on my left side. This is the side that reocurred with pain again, after surgery. Thankfully, a neurologist diagnosed the now existing ongoing problem. I had a freezing put in the left lateral contanious nerve of the thigh. Until the freezing wore off I could run, jump, and have no pain, where normally I can not walk that well without chronic pain. He diagnosed me with meralgia paresthetica. I now am looking into going to see another neurosurgeon to see if it is possible to permanently freeze the nerve. I don’t think it’s that easy though, I have been told that it will always feel frozen, and that the nerve ending will grow back, most likely causing the pain to return. I had been trying lazer therapy, which only brought a mild bit of relief. Absolutley nothing permanent for pain though, and what a lot of money for 20 treatments! Anyways, has anyone ever had a nerve permanently frozen in the inguinal area?

would avoid Meyers like the plague. I had a horrible result with him that left me severely debilitated. Operated 5 years ago, and then retore the hernia during rehabilitation. tried to call dr. meyers, but his staff assured me that retears are not possible. Eventually they let me schedule a three minute followup appt in which he barely gave me the time of day, and told me that retears are not possible and abruptly left the room. He has a serious jeckle-and hyde personality.

I tore the labrums in both hips during rehabilitation (this is common in people with sports hernias) and developed arthritis in both hips before another surgeon was able to diagnose the re-retear of the sports hernia. his re-do of the operation decreased my pelvic pain, but my hips and back are now destroyed.
suggest that you contact Richard Cattey or also can try Dr. Mushaweck in Germany (MLS is now sending many of their players overseas to see her rather than Dr. Meyers) My experience with Dr. Muschaweck was night and day compared to my experience with Meyers. They spend lots of time informing you about the procedure and ensuring proper rehabilitation. With Meyers, you are given best wishes and then will have difficulty getting him to provide adequate follow-up care.

I had posted a few articles. I had thought that I had sports hernia, then to have been diagnosed 3 years later with Meralgia Paresthetica, only to later find out it was the wrong diagnosis. I had tried lazer therapy, and no help with that. Now I have had nerve blocks on one of the inguinal nerves, and had no pain. It was a success. So now I am waiting to see if the cortisone shot with the freezing helps, and the step after that, to try and have the nerve permanently blocked, however, it isn't totally permanent, since the nerve endings grow back. This has been a long process of trying to figure out what happened and who to go to. My pain reocurred 6 months after my inguinal hernia repair surgery. I've been to a neurologist, and seen a neurosurgeon. I am having nerve blocks from an anesthesiologist at present. So basically, if someone feels they have sports hernia, and are not getting any help, maybe look into seeing a neurologist as well.

I have had left groin pain for two years.  I had surgery by Dr. Meyers and 2 months later, surgery from Dr. Stubbs in Winston Salem, NC.  I still have the left groin pain.  I went back for a follow up with Meyers and waited all day to get a 5 minute appointment where he told me he was 99% sure it was the joint causing the pain.  I wasted money to go back to Stubbs and then to Byrd, who both specialize in the hip joint.  They told me the joint looks fine…..Dr. Meyers sucked in my money and hardly gave me the time of day…

I woke up in the morning after a night of basketball and had pain in my groin, testicles, and the whole muscle down the back of my upper leg. I just thought I pulled a muscle so I tried to take it easy so it could heal. I still played basketball once a week for about 3 more weeks because the pain was not that bad. Then I decided to rest for a few months so it could heal but as soon as I ran for about 5 mins the pain came right back and it was worse than it was before. The pain in the back of my upper leg had healed but the groin pain and pain in my testicles was really bad. I went to the doctor and sent me to physical therapy which did not help at all. So I tried just resting it again for about 3 months and it still never got better. The doctor then sent me to a hernia specialist who believed it was a sports hernia. I got a second opinion from another doctor and he said he would go in with a camera an if he saw a hernia he would repair it. He checked both sides with the camera and found the sports hernia on my right side and fixed it. I had the surgery about 9 days ago and although I am still in some pain from surgery I can already tell that the problem is finally fixed. Also one of my symptoms besides the constant pain was random shooting pains that were very painful that would just happen and random times durning the day. I Hope this helps people who have the same problem. I am glad I had the surgery and am looking forward to running again.