Anyone ever had a "Sports Hernia" aka: "Sportsman's hernia", "Gilmore's groin", or &quot

In October 2005 I decided to drop down from trail ultra-marathons to road marathons. I started doing track work to get speed back in my legs. After about two weeks of speed work I developed a very sore pubic bone, I could not even cough or sit up. After about a week this pain seemed to migrate in the form of a burning pain sensation to my left upper thigh/groin and then a chronic pain in my left groin. I also have a numb area on my left upper thigh. I saw several doctors and not one of them knew what a sports hernia was. They recommended RICE, NSAIDS, cortizone and PT. PT and stretching made the pain worse. The other stuff didn't work either.. I have had a CT, X-Ray, MRI and hernia exam, all negative. I have not run since October and very little bike riding, only walking. These days the pain is a chronic sore inguinal area and a pulling pain sensation in my upper groin when lifting my leg upwards. I also get pain when I sit for too long. I don't have any pain with adduction or abduction, just flexing. At this point I have a surgeon that seems to care and is ordering tests for lateral femurol cutaneuos nerve compression. He believes this is a nerve problem, but has not ruled out a sports hernia.

Does anyone have a clue what this might be and does anyone know of an expert in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Marathnr, Dr.Joesting will be doing my sports hernia surgery on 3/17. How did your surgery go? How was your recovery? Was the whole experience better or worse than you expected? Are you glad that you did it? I\'m very nervous (if you can\'t tell) and would love to hear from anyone who has had this procedure with Dr. Joesting.

Donna, write me at

marathnr@hotmail.com

and I can write back, put sports hernia in the subject line

TS

Donna and Marathnr,

I had SH with Dr. Joesting a couple of years ago. It began with a mysterious series of running injuries and worsened within a couple of weeks to the point where it hurt to cough, walk or lift a laptop. No other doctor could figure it out. Joesting stuck his fingers up there (if youve had this exam you know what I mean) and instantly diagnosed it as a tear in the transversalis fascia.

I had surgery a couple of weeks later. Joesting said he found exactly what he expected and stitched me up with two pieces of mesh. Joesting used an open incision instead of the scope. He told me the open method gets better results because he can repair the tear with two pieces of mesh instead of one with the scope.

Interesting aside: I had read alot about the scope method touted by Dr Cattey and others and I asked Joesting about his prognosis of about the future of scope repairs for sports hernias. "Not good," he replied. Similarly, I asked about adductor release, which some surgeons do as part of SH repair. Joesting said it was bunk. Like a lot of surgeons, Dr. J has strong opinons and no shortage of confidence!

All in all, I found Dr. Joesting to be a gentleman and very courteous about answering questions. He invited me to call him as I considered whether to have surgery. He phoned me back and once again took time to answer questions. That really earned him high marks in my book because, frankly, alot of other docs wont talk to you unless you make an appontment, don't give complete answers and always seem in a rush to move to the next patient.

I got back to light running 3 weeks after surgery. My adductors on the surgical side remained tight for weeks. There was some discomfort when starting up but it gradually disappeared over a few weeks. I had hernia surgery on the other side about 10 years before and it seemed like I recovered more quickly the second time around even though I was older. Why? I think the technique had just gotten more advanced.

Within five months I was running 70mpw. M I still have some tightness in the surgery area. I've also had some other problems in the knee, quad and hip on the same side that I suspect might be related (maybe a secondary injury? maybe a separate issue caused by whatever biomechanical flaw caused hernia? who knows?) I wasn't prescribed any PT or exercises after surgery. In retrospect, I think a runner really needs them. After all, for years we've been hearing about the crucial role of core muscles and this injury cuts a hole right through them.

Bottom line: Dr Joesting is the go-to guy in the Twin Cities for sports hernias and did right by me.

FYI...Dr. J wrote an article in a medical journal a few years ago called "Diagnosis and Treatment of the Sportsman's Hernia.". You can find it online.

Hope some of that helps. Good luck. I don't check this board too often anymore but I will try to respond if you have more questions.

mesh in the middle, hey thanks! that is some interesting news about the length of time you had pain in the adductor muscle area after your surgery. I will be 8 weeks out friday and still have bilateral adductor muscle pain. I am only walking/jogging a bit now, rarely more than 3 miles. I am supposed to talk to Dr. J tomorrow about this continuing adductor muscle pain, do you recall if you were having the pain after 2 months yet?? I know it's been a while since you had the surgery.

I had the surgery on both sides as well.

you can e-mail me at the above address as well. thanks.

I read through the threads, and the contribution is just "outstanding". I would like to hear more about how local doctors don't know what the hell they're talking about, when it comes to sports hernias, and they get down right snotty and nasty when you disagree with them. When these local clowns don't know, they don't bother to try to figure it out or even check on it. They just say it's in your head. Well, that might of worked for these idiots before the internet, but not any more. They look at the MRI and say MRI's don't lie, and when the pills don't work and your problem keeps getting worse, your just being uncooperative. They also won't help get you to people like Dr. Cottye or Dr. Joesting, or even that oscar meyer guy, because as far as they're concerned you have no problem. Anybody else had an experience like this? Talk to Mulva.

Donna,

This Dr. Joesting seems to be a new addition to the mix Dr Cottey / Meyre. How did you find him and what can you tell us about him?

Hey Oak Brook - I was referred to Dr Joesting by the orthopedic surgeon (or sports medicine doc)that analyzed my mri and hip area. It took him all of 15 minutes to look at my films and move my leg around before he said "I believe you have a sports hernia, you need to see Dr. Joesting." I live in the Twin Cities so I'm guessing he's becoming well known amongst the sports medicine docs here. As for Dr. Joesting...he is an older hernia surgeon...he seemed very down to earth and patient during my consultation. He told me he enjoys spending time with his grandchildren so he doesn't do seminars or much else to attract patients. After reading all the road blocks others seem to be encountering with this, I feel fortunate that he decided I was a candidate for this procedure. I just hope it works! My surgery is next Friday, 3/17. I'll try to remember to post my results to this board.

Thank You Donna.

I have had groin pain for about 7 months now. It hurts with any adduction or any striding or quick motion. I too, believe that I have a Sport Hernia. I am in the Military and they don't seem to have any clue what a sports hernia is all about. I will be getting out of the military soon and am looking for a good doctor in the Northern California area for treatment. Does anyone know of anyone. Larson.scott@pon.net works the best to respond. Thanks for you help.

Meyers won't help me. So I may go to Munich.

Does anyone know what they do there?

I am not intersted in any mesh.

Mostly all I think I need at this point is my adductors released.

I would like to know more about Munich also, I have seen their website but would like to know about people's actual experiences with this doctor because of the time, money, effort, distance involved.

I don't get it! Do People actually need to travel to Germany, for real, because this Myers guy can't or won't help them with a real problems? Is that what I'm hearing?

Oak Brook, IL wrote:

I don't get it! Do People actually need to travel to Germany, for real, because this Myers guy can't or won't help them with a real problems? Is that what I'm hearing?

No, Meyers won't help people who he doesn't believe have athletic pubalgia or who he believes he cannot help. He helpd me just fine.

Any sports hernia doctor around the Austin, TX area. I believe I have a sports hernia. Please help.

Go to your doctor, you cheap bastard. That way you'll have something to complain about here on the message boards.

Or maybe people have gone to meyers and had the surgery and it didn't work

I had the Meyers surgery and it was successful for me. he'd rather turn you away then try and help you and have it not work.

I'm sure Meyers has done the surgery for some and it didn't work. That is the case with all surgeries. One of the risks you take going under the knife. But I think it's a good sign when a doctor will turn away people he doesn't believe he can help. The surgery, at six months out, has been a success for me. If he told me he didn;t believe he could help me I would have gladly walked away and found a different doc. Who would want a surgeon to cut on them when he didn't beleive it would work?