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

I'm a female....and had an inguinal hernia and general surgery for it last year. I just went to a normal doc...and got a 2 inch incision, sewed up, ect.

Now, when I try to run fast or kick too much in the pool -I get severe groin pain, medial hamstring and adductor strains. How do I cure this....balancing exercises? Or, is this a result of the hernia and surgery.

Hi -

Do you have any idea of what the recovery is like if you only have the pelvic repair? I've read anything from 2 weeks of rest before you can run again to 3 months. That's a pretty big difference.

I'd appreciate any advice.

Sorry to crap all over your false hopes, but take it from a long time sufferer who knows more than a few others. If you have this problem it's a career ender for many of us, pushing 40. Oh, you'll have a few decent days if you pop enough painkillers, and you'll start thinking you're actually healing, but this will be followed by ever more painful setbacks. The truth? Accept it, move on, and find other things to fill the void in your life. I recommend weight lifting and smoking pot when you get too stressed, or moving on to other painkillers. Surgery is mentioned, but anyone who's not an elite athlete that would go under the knife for something like this is all wrong in the head. Good luck, you will all need it.

How long did it take to set up an appointment with Dr. Meyers?

It's quick but they want you to get a MRI of your pelvis first. So you'll need to talk to a local guy and get the image made. You should get the first doc to eliminate other possibilities so you don;t aste a trip. Call his office and talk to his assistant. You can get all the details from her.

MS wrote:

How long did it take to set up an appointment with Dr. Meyers?

You know, naturally, at first, i was pretty angered by the post several lines up. But, once I thought about it a bit more, you have several valid claims speaking from experience and woke me up to just how harsh a reality this is, though I was kinda aware of it in the back of my head.

I'm in a pickle of a situation, and I'm starting to gather that I might just have to come to grips and move on. But i can't give up hope that easy.

I'm 30, I make a profession as a ski patroller in Tahoe and working physically hard in the summers as a claim staker in Nevada for gold mining companies. I'm a competetive runner (or was), and I've got aspirations to move onto the marathon and ultra scene eventually. But it comes down to whether I want to get this surgery and possibly risk some of these other passions to gain them all. I guess I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too, but its tough coming to grips with that fact that I might have to give up some other loves.

Anyways, I'm jumping the gun as it is, since I haven't had the pelvic MRI and don't know exactly what I'm looking at just yet, but I do know that I've had serious pain in both groins for going on almost 2 yrs, and its dramatically held me back from competing in anything over a 12k and stepping up my mileage. And, despite what sounds like a farily continuous rough year round abuse of my body, I have in that period had a good amount of time of sustained rest due to a fat pad contusion I suffered rock climbing that had me off my feet more of less for 3 mnths. Again, thanx for all the input, advice, warnings. I'll keep everyone updated on my side. OUT

One more thing - I know that success/failure rates very greatly on exactly how severe the groin injury, the intricates of exactly what is torn/injured, and the subject him or herself, but it'd be nice to hear some feel good tales of people that have bounced back from this and have had post-op success. Anyone, anyone???

I have gotten an MRI and was scheduled to go tomorrow to get regular hernia repair done on my groin. The surgeon is a specialist in hernias but was not to familar with the sports hernia but thought he wanted to give a try on the regular hernia repair. He said it might work but can't guarantee it. I wasn't to comfertable with that assumtion so I decided to cancel the appointment. The doctor feels it is a sports hernia and doesn't know anyone who is familiar with it. I called the office today and the secretary was out and she took my name down and said I would get a call back but didn't recieve one today. Am I looking at weeks or days to get an appointment do you think? Thanks for the help.

In reply to 'sorry', I'm sorry you feel like you know so much. I bet you don't. Yes, there is a likihood that there won't be a recovery but that applies to individuals with the 'perpetual' knee problem or compartment syndrome or any other situation that doesn't heal correctly for whatever reason.

I have had this for 4 years so I think I've been through it all too. Keep in mind that most of the people who are replying to these posts have been through it too. Do not discount the success, partial or full, that some have benefitted from as a result of surgery.

Rest doesn't work, cortisone treatments do not work, stretching and pt both negative. I had the adductor release done and it "fixed" all my issues with the pain as eminating from below, however, they failed to diagnose the problems it caused with my abdominal muscles so now I also have gilmore's. See, if the medical world cared or knew about the condition or regular people, I wouldn't have gilmore's groin because that only crept in about 18 months after the adductor tendinopathy.

And for your information, I am a female so I receive more shoddy service than a man. One thing to remember here is that it will affect my ability to bear a child if it is not corrected soon. Most of my pubic symphasis is gone. I think I'd rather try more surgery to prevent the rest of it from eroding because if that happens, then what?

And it can be corrected. If I recall correctly, Adam Goucher had it, Carrie Tollefson had it and they are both back performing at high levels post-op. Not to mention 80 - 90% of all football and soccer players who get the condition too. What is important in the correction is duration of time and the concurring pathologies that additionally affect it. So before you go telling people that they 'have something wrong in the head' because they want to try to live a full life without pain if possible, think and do your research.

And while I agree that no one should take surgery lightly, if you have this condition, you've probably tried all other conservative methods and found out they don't work. We're all here to help each other so if you can't do it, don't write. Thanks.

When I called, I got an appointment scheduled for 3-4 weeks later. I get the impression he is fairly busy. I had to fly there, though, so I was ok with a few weeks to get a reasonably priced flight.

MS wrote:

I have gotten an MRI and was scheduled to go tomorrow to get regular hernia repair done on my groin. The surgeon is a specialist in hernias but was not to familar with the sports hernia but thought he wanted to give a try on the regular hernia repair. He said it might work but can't guarantee it. I wasn't to comfertable with that assumtion so I decided to cancel the appointment. The doctor feels it is a sports hernia and doesn't know anyone who is familiar with it. I called the office today and the secretary was out and she took my name down and said I would get a call back but didn't recieve one today. Am I looking at weeks or days to get an appointment do you think? Thanks for the help.

Crap on his false hopes? Give me a break! The only thing you're crapping on is the truth.

I had SH surgery at age 35 and it worked wonders for me. Until then I had spent a couple of months trying to figure out a wierd series of injuiries that kept moving around. Finally a doc and PT figured it out. I found a good surgeon who has done a lot of these and three weeks later I started running again. Its helped plenty of people well past age 40 too.

If this really is a sports hernia, you'll be fine. The biggest hurdle for me was diagnosing it (really a matter of ruling out other stuff) and finding a doc who had seen this before. A lot of doctors simply don't understand this injury and don't believe in a hernia that they cant see and feel.

Good luck!

Can you tell me where exactly your pain was? Everybody keeps mentioning the abdomen but I don't have that. Its seems like the source is right at my left sit bone and wraps around, but I have no abdomen pain. The doc says it is tendenitis of the hamstring insertion but after 3 weeks of therapy and anti-inflamatories, it is still killing me. I don't know if riding the bike is irritating it or not. Please HELP!

you probably dont want to hear this, but three weeks is not enough to cure a bad case of tendinopathy (I found out the hard way!)

do a search on some of the recent threads on achilles tendonitis and chronic tendonitis and you'll see that some of us have been battling it for months or years. Take care of it now or you will cause much worse pain and suffering.

A tendon is soft tissue but aint like muscle--it takes a very long time to heal.

A couple of thoughts:

**anti-inflammatories are useful during the initial inflammation stage of tendonitis. But once it enters the phase of tendinopathy there's generally little or no inflammation. Many people, even doctors, don't understand this. Some evidence suggests that anti-inflammatories interfere with the process of making collagen your body needs to rebuild damaged tendon. NSAIDs may make you feel better but they may also slow the healing process.

**Ice a lot

** Look into active rlease therapy. This is where the therapist breaks up the damaged tendon in order to stimulate healing. It's painful and takes a couple of months. I'm going through it right now and don't know the outcome yet, but in theory it sounds like it might help.

**Maybe try shock wave therapy if you can find it near you. This is a new therapy that sounds promising. It might be my next step. Try sonarex.com or another company near you.

To mpf - my pain was at the adductor insertion to the pubic bone. Bone is incredibly painful and sore to the touch. I think I got the injury when I wobbled while doing lunges and got a bad strain. After 18 months, pain moved into abdomen from the attachment to the pubic bone. Pain is generally reproduced when getting in and out of a car, turning over in bed, coughing sneezing, doing situps - basically anything that engaged my adductor or trunk. I ran approximately 60 - 70 miles a week on it for 3 plus years. I could run with it but it is very painful and very sore for about 6 hours post run. Ironically, it always hurt more when I took time off and that is the true reason I ran through it. Well, that and that fact that I couldn't get a doctor to look at me for 3 years. Two months ago I had a release of my left adductor and that seemed to help my leg but the pain in my upper groin still needs to be addressed.

I didn't have pain on my sit bone or in my hamstring. Good luck.

Does anyone here have pain in their hip joint as well? I have a lot of these symptoms (for the past year), and stopped running for 6 months. It comes back right away. Stretching can aggrivate it. It had all the symptoms of a labral tear, but nothing showed on the MRI.....

Any good running docs in Cali????

I had the surgery 3 weeks ago and it's healing nicely. I won't try to do much running until next week, but It already feels great! I can sneeze without feeling like the lower half of my body is going to fly off.

Thanx again for keepin this post and my hopes alive people!

Just trying to get all the info before I find out what I'm possibly dealing with. I do know that rest, anti-inflams,

ice, and rest haven't helped. Goin on 2 yrs with this...

I have those same symptoms....exactly after having inguinal surgery. And, hamstring pain. It really hurts at the adductor insertion. Where did you get the adductor release done?

I had the adductor release done in boston. It seemed to work out great for lower half of my body. However, I am flying to philly to see meyers to have the groin surgery done unless my doctor here knows how to do it and will do it faster than the date I have scheduled with meyers. I'm afraid to wait as this thing seems to attack another portion of the body once it has weakened one portion sufficiently.