Groin pain

Even a mild strain is going to require at least a few weeks of rest. However, every patient is different, and your recovery will depend on how severely you’ve strained your groin, your overall fitness and your personal circumstances. 

There are some broad guidelines for how long your recovery will take, according to how severe your strain is:

• Grade 1 strain should take 2-3 weeks
• Grade 2 strain can take 2-3 months
• Grade 3 strain can take over 4 months

As you recover, and your consultant gives you the okay to get back to your regular activities, it’s important to take things slowly. Overdoing it is the easiest way to strain your groin again, and repeated strains can increase your recovery time or even turn into a chronic condition.

Participating in sport is the most common cause of groin strain. Professional and recreational athletes both run a higher risk, particularly if the sport involves kicking or quick direction changes, such as football, rugby or tennis. Resistance training, lifting heavy objects or even just falling over can also suddenly put a lot of weight through your hips and cause a groin strain. 

There are also some specific factors that can increase the chances of straining your groin: 

• Weak or tight adductor muscles
• Poor pelvic stability
• Previous groin, leg or lower back injury
• Biomechanical factors
• Sudden increases in in sports activities
• Poor fitness
• Not warming up adequately before exercise

A groin strain can be painful and debilitating, so it’s always better to prevent it if you can. That’s even more important if you’ve suffered from a groin strain before, as repeated strains can lead to a chronic condition. 

There are some simple physical steps that you can take to reduce your risk:

• Always warm up before physical activity
• Wear shoes with good support
• Do regular stretching and strengthening exercises for your thigh muscles
• Increase the intensity of physical activity slowly
• Stop exercising if you feel pain in your groin

The most common cause of groin pain is a strain in your adductor muscles because of playing sport. But there are other sports-related injuries that can lead to groin pain, including inflammation in your pubic bones, avulsion fractures (where a ligament tears off a fragment of bone) or a femoral neck stress fracture.

Groin pain can also be a sign of an inguinal hernia, which happens when an internal organ pushes its way through gaps in your adductor muscles. If you can feel large bumps in your groin, it may be a sign of a hernia, which needs to be treated with surgery.

Groin pain can also be a sign that you have an underlying biomechanical imbalance in your hips and pelvis that’s overloading the soft tissues. It can also be caused by hip conditions such as hip impingement, labral tears and osteoarthritis. Spinal conditions in your lower back, such as herniated discs or spondylolisthesis, can also result in groin pain because your lumbar spine has nerves that travel to your groin area.

If you have a specific condition that’s causing your groin pain, your consultant will give you a precise diagnosis, explain what’s happening and talk you through your treatment options.