What happens during your appointment?
When you first come in for your appointment, your consultant surgeon will “take your history”. This involves the consultant asking you questions about what happened and what symptoms you get.
You will also be asked about your general health and any operations or illnesses you may have had as well as about any tablets you take or allergies to any medicines.
Examination
Your consultant will inspect the site of the pain with you standing up right, and then while you are lying down. He will then assess the movement of your hips to check if there are any particular movements that causes the pain.
When the groin itself is examined, the key is the feel of the “superficial inguinal ring” which normally contains the cord bringing all the tubes and blood vessels to the testicle.
How to examine the groin
In women, for obvious reasons, the examination of this area is less helpful.
Investigation
Post the examination, your consultant will arrange further investigations to help confirm the diagnosis.
Currently, the best single investigation for this is a high resolution (3T) MRI scan. It is not only imperative for these scans to be carried out in high resolution but must also be done of the correct areas with the right resolution to see all the muscles and the hip joints. Scans that do not meet these requirements may be inadequate and a further scan may need to be done.
Once the scans are completed, this is then looked at (“reported”) by a specialist musculoskeletal radiologist who is used to working in a specialist groin team – Dr Rosy Jalan.
Occasionally an ultrasound scan may also be helpful as may x-rays of the hips and pelvis, or a test called a bone scan, but it is the MRI that is most important.
Treatment options
After assessing and diagnosing your problem, our consultant will recommend a well-established rehabilitation programme for Gilmore’s Groin. If your consultant notices that you did not respond well to the rehabilitation, they may recommend surgery.
Our consultant advice
Meet our clinic team
Learn about your consultant surgeons, specialist sports and exercise medicine and the rest of the multi-disciplinary team that will be a part of your recovery journey.
