So, there’s a good chance I have a sports hernia… Athletic pubalgia. The groin pain that just wouldn’t go away the last few months has a name - fantastic! Before cashing in this season, since I’ve been dealing with the pain anyway, I am confident that I can finish it out barring any further issues and have surgery in the late fall. Not a lot of fun having a nagging pain in the groin, but so it goes.
Anyone train and race with this issue? Advice?
Any post surgery stories? Thanks.
So, there’s a good chance I have a sports hernia… Athletic pubalgia. The groin pain that just wouldn’t go away the last few months has a name - fantastic! Before cashing in this season, since I’ve been dealing with the pain anyway, I am confident that I can finish it out barring any further issues and have surgery in the late fall. Not a lot of fun having a nagging pain in the groin, but so it goes.
Anyone train and race with this issue? Advice?
Any post surgery stories? Thanks.
Who diagnosed it? And yeah, you can “finish the season”, by risking further damage. Not really worth it IMHO.
John
Who diagnosed it? And yeah, you can “finish the season”, by risking further damage. Not really worth it IMHO.
My wife who’s a PCP made the diagnosis. I have an appointment with her office and my primary care specifically. I am just planning for the worst at this point.
It is very likely they will have to cut back to almost no physical activity if your wife’s diagnosis is correct, and I imagine it will be. Personally I would do whatever they recommend until you get treated. My old man like retelling the story of when he avoided going in for a hernia back when he was in the military, lets just say it isn’t a good story.
Started this year out doing some serious run training, set PR’s in the 1/2 marathon, 5k, and mile. 1st PRs in running since 2004 and I’m now 38, so I was having a good year! Then out of the blue started getting some pain in my abdomen/groin that radiated into my testicles. It would happen durring runs and other random times. Self diagnosed it as a sports hernia and went to see a doctor about it, someone I knew who is also a triathlete. After listening to my symptoms, he thought it sounded like a sports hernia as well and got me in for an MRI. I questioned him on whether I should continue to train and race, his thoughts were that the pain would be self limiting, to stop if it was real bad but if it was manageable I probably wasn’t doing anything to cause more damage. I also found that when hit with the typical throbing pain, applying pressure to my abdomen/groin (basically pressure on that V you see on someone with six pack) would alleviate most if not all the pain.
So while waiting for results from the MRI, I taped myself up real tightly around my abdomen/groin and raced a 5k which I had already registered for and won it with a 17:29. Prior to taping, I was unable to run much faster than 8 minute pace without pain, but with the tape it was quite manageable. The only real drawback is after a hard effort it can feel like you have blue balls afterwards… I won a 10k the following weekend and then took 2 weeks off from running completely. Biking is pain free, swimming there can be a little pain, but manageable without taping. After those two weeks off I raced an Xterra triathlon a week ago placing 5th overall and then just raced and won the Topeka Tinman Sprint triathlon with the second fastest run split. For the Topeka race I forgot to bring athletic tape so I ended up using duct tape that the event staff had on hand. Turns out duct tape works just fine and is a fraction of the cost, so I’ll be using duct tape for the remainder of the season.
So, it is possible to train and race with a sports hernia, athough we could have them to differing degrees or something else could be different. In my case, applying direct pressure helps allowing me to tape so I can train/race. You might also do more research regarding surgery and if it is absolutely necessary. I have another doctor friend who is a very accomplished triathlete who had a sports hernia that eventually healed up without surgery. You might read some of the info at this link:
http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1606.cfm
I found that link on this thread: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=559820&page=160 at letsrun.com…
Here are the readings of my MRI:
There is evidence of hyperintense signal in the interpubic disc along the anterior inter margin of the medial pubic bone. There is also evidence of high signal at the site of insertion of the adductor longus tendon on the right side within the pubic body.
Marrow edema is noted involving the body of the pubic bone bilaterally, in the right side it is extending into the inferior pubic ramus and on the left side it is extending into the superior pubic ramus. No evidence of any inguinal hernia on either side.The urinary bladder prostate and other pelvic structures appear normal. There is no evidence of pelvic lymphadenopathy. Both hip joints are normal. Images through the upper abdomen shows normal liver, gallbladder, adrenals, spleen and the pancreas. The left kidney is not visualized. Right kidney shows compensatory hypertrophy and measures 11.9 cm. No evidence of hydronephrosis in the right kidney.
Impression
For the Topeka race I forgot to bring athletic tape so I ended up using duct tape that the event staff had on hand. Turns out duct tape works just fine and is a fraction of the cost, so I’ll be using duct tape for the remainder of the season.
Dude, you just gave new meaning to “HTFU”. I will forever be able to tell someone that complains that their insides are falling out of there body to shut the F(*#$ up and get some duct tape.
You are the man.
I raced most of a Tri season with it and there was very little fun. I fact, I have to thank the sports hernia for turning me into a cyclist since that was the only discipline that wasn’t ridiculously uncomfortable.
Imo, it’s not worth going through an extended period of time for training instead of getting it taken care of.
Thanks for the replies. I get no discomfort biking and the thought crossed my mind to skip the running altogether, but I’ve dropped my mile pace by 45sec the last year and hate the thought of going backwards.
Tony, how the heck do you tape it. Just around the hips/abdomen as tight as she goes - tape on skin? Hard core. I’ll have to try that. Running at this point is ok but I just hate having that nagging ache.
This might end up being a inguinal hernia, as my wife tested again and thought she felt a small bubble in the left but not in the right side. I was distracted with her fiddling around down there though - hahahaha! She said I am a bad patient…
I had this in college while rowing. Felt pain round about end of October, was diagnosed beginning of November but continued to row untill end of January when I went home and had the surgury to repair. Luckly for me the hernia was only on the right but it’s very common for there to be hernia’s on both sides so be aware of that. As mentioned earlier if you put preasure on that “V” area the bulge goes away and excersising is doable. I used an ace bandage and golf ball over where i suspected the hernia was.
Recovery was 2 days no moving in bed, then long walks. I got back training with the team end of February and it felt uncomfortable but not bad. More like there was a piece of tape in my belly.
That bubble could also be where your psoas muscle ties into the pubic area creating knots. That happened to me at the beginning of last year and had it fixed with shots of muscle relaxants directly to the site.
Fast forward to this year. Athletic Pubalgia caused by acute strain playing basketball. Diagnosed by one of the leading sports hernia docs in the nation. Was told to shut it down and go through a specific PT protocol. Six weeks and twelve visits later I think I had the strongest adductors and transverse abdominals this side of the Mississippi. I was religious about doing my PT stuff twice a day and ending with TENS stimulation and icing. Date of incident was March 1st and I am still unable to run without a significant warmup…like a swim, bike, or full PT cycle.
Have had several people tell me they had the surgery and were running full speed within weeks.
Be careful man, this is going to linger for a long time if you are not careful.
http://www.sportsherniasouth.com/
PT protocol: http://www.sportsherniasouth.com/Sports-Hernia-Treatment.html
Hi
I am dealing with the same thing. Fun fun fun.
Good to find out there it has a name.
Being at the end of a training period to a target run (marathon in 6 weeks), I am trying to figure out whether to quit and rest or keep on - can I afford “not listening for my body”…
Appreciate it if you can share your experience - What did you finally do? Did it work for you? What were the sequences of your actions? How are you today?
10X!!!
Make sure you get the right diagnosis before you go under the knife. See this thread for my experience with what I thought was a sports-hernia but turned out to be otherwise. I still get tight in that area when I don’t stretch appropriately, but have been able to keep it at bay. The Diagram included shows exactly where my pain was.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=4065149;search_string=sports%20hernia;#4065149
I hope this can be helpful. PM me if you have any additional questions.
Thanks for the info. My primary thought it was a hernia and sent me to the surgeon. The surgeon thought it could be but didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary and said I could keep running and see how it goes or I could get MRI, x-rays that might not show anything anyway. So, I just said screw it basically, and kept running thinking that if I could deal with the pain it would either get worse and force the issue or stay the same or maybe get better. It hasn’t gotten any worse, and sometimes doesn’t hurt as much. I did drop down to 25-30 miles a week, so we’ll see how it reacts when I get back up to 40plus. If the pain is worse or the same as it was, I’ll go visit the othro.
In 2007, we had just spent 2 1/2 days climbing Denali and we topped out. 9000’ route on a 20K’ mountain. It was strenuous and demanding.
We started down towards high camp and I felt like someone had kicked me in my left testicle. 6000’ later I lay in the tent nauseated until I passed out from fatigue.
In the following years, I would get the same feeling on longer bike rides.
In 2010, I got a physical from my family doctor, upon dropping my pants, he looked at me asked how long have you had “that”? I replied “what, that fat?” No, that not fat, that’s a herina.
At 142 pounds I don’t have much fat.
I didn’t even have to cough for him to notice it but that puppy would bulge when I did.
Spring of 2012 I go to a surgeon and he says I have two hernias (bilateral). My work is physically demanding and more and more, I felt nauseated towards the the middle of the day and would even have to take a knee on those 16+ hour days.
This year I was feeling the hernias while running. I was really feeling it when climbing in the French Alps for 3 weeks this summer.
Needing rotator cuff surgery in both shoulders I recently signed up to get it ALL fixed.
I had the worst (right) shoulder operated on 5 weeks ago.
Two weeks after the right shoulder, I had surgery on both hernias (added the mesh).
I was jogging at 2 weeks. Yesterday was 3 weeks and I have gotten in 2 easy rides and two 5 mile runs (one was before shoulder P.T. today).
Going to ride saturday and sunday.
Left shoulder surgery is monday.
They say 8 weeks before you can go back to work, if you need to lift 100lbs like I do. But if you have an office job, could see going back after a week or week and a half. Find a well respected surgeon who has that specializes in that type of surgery.
As for getting back to full on training, for me. I believe, if I was not having shoulder surgery, I could see being back at it at 6 weeks.
Everyone is different and I have listening to my body and using it to guide me.
I would not want to have to go through it again. That first week is VERY uncomfortable. It was a week and a half before I could sleep in the bed.
I wish I had taken care of it earlier. No use in putting it off.
Conservative treatment alone seldom completely resolves symptoms in athletes with sports hernia. After conservative treatment has been attempted for 8 weeks and symptoms persist, surgery should be contemplated and benefits/risks thoughtfully considered by the medical team and patient. Nearly all athletes return to competitive sport within 15 weeks after surgery and rehabilitation.