Not buying it wrote:
I'm currently having this exact same problem. Pain in my groin, NOT in my hip. I was diagnosed with a labral tear and a slight impingement, however I strongly feel this is not causing the pain I'm having and feel my issue is with a pelvic imbalance and/or lower back issues. Both of which I've dealt with in the past....
I can understand your skepticism. To be honest, the safest thing for you to do is get a 2nd and maybe a 3rd opinion. If you have impingement that is showing up on imaging, I would believe the impingement to be a cause of your groin pain even above the labral tear itself.
Also, you may not have actually torn your labrums until your pregnancies when it placed your hips under and extreme amount of pressure (especially during birth). The only thing I don't agree with is trying to pinpoint when you tore your labrum -- that type of diagnosis is almost ALWAYS impossible unless you can literally remember a specific twisting/turning/kicking movement that left you with acute pain or a day where you went from 100% fine to a large amount of pain. Usually that's not the case and the patient has some type of gradual onset that they cannot pinpoint to a specific day or moment.
The arthroscopic surgery is fairly new. There is not a lot of research about it but there are a fair amount of athletes and individuals so far who have had great experiences. I agree with you that surgery is serious. The other important thing is you really want to be able to trust your surgeon and feel confident you have an accurate diagnosis.
I can personally say that I've had both of my hips done and they feel a million times better than they did before the surgeries. I actually cannot believe I was walking around on a daily basis thinking the discomfort I had was normal. It was pretty gradual for me and I didn't do anything about it until the pain was so bad I was forced to stop most activity.
If you think it might be only pelvic alignment, again I would find someone to check your pelvis and spine. However, in your case someone has found impingement. Do you know what kind it is? A good idea would be to gather all of your imaging and get one or two more opinions while you are in the process of getting your pelvis checked out. It can't hurt and you'll feel better about what decision you make. I don't think your doctor is just trying to operate on you, but there are a few poor explanations (i.e. the "new shoe" one).