Hip Joint/Pelvic Pain

[icgirl]

Hi Guys!

For 6 months I have been suffering from urinary incontinence (urge incontinence/OAB). Accompanied with the sudden incontinence has been hip joint/pelvic bone pain. The pain is not constant but it flares up when I've been walking a lot like during a day in the city when I'm climbing up and down subway stairs and walking many blocks. So far no doctor has been able to link these too symptoms together but my gut feeling is they are connected. Can anyone help brainstorm w/ me possible causes of the incontinence and hip pain? I was thinking perhaps Pelvic Inflammatory Disease or Interstitial Cystitis?

Any thoughts will be much appreciated.

[Patrick]

In my case, I have a genetic connective tissue disease, (Marfan Syndrome); it occasionally mimics arthritis. Even a little exercise can cause a hip pain flareup that can be quite disabling. I'm not trying to diagnose you from afar; I merely suggest that incontinence can be a medically complex condition that only a qualified physician can decode. Good luck, and report back when you can.

[icgirl]

Thanks and Happy New Year, Patrick!! Hope our health improves over the course of 2019.

I don't have the symptoms of Marfan's disease like the long limbs. Maybe the hip pain is osteoarthritis although I feel awfully young to have arthritis. But I'm also quite young to have incontinence. I'm really going to concentrate on vitamins and supplements to hopefully get better this year. Right now I'm taking Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, and turmeric.

[icgirl]

Update: I consulted other forums to find a link b/w the hip joint pain I'm experiencing accompanied w/ incontinence. They all said it sounds like Pelvic Floor Dysfunction to them. For anyone else reading who is going through something similar, I was advised to see a Physical Therapist specializing in the pelvic floor. W/ my high deductible insurance, I probably won't explore that option since I've already been to a PT and it didn't help that much. But I am planning to try yoga for the pelvic floor during the new year. It certainly should help my range of motion and flexibility and maybe reduce the joint pain.

[Patrick]

I have the highest regard for physical therapists. They taught me how to walk after my inner ear disease made me bedfast for months. And I have had several cycles of pelvic floor physical therapy. Physical therapists have been instrumental in explaining exactly what was going on during an episode of incontinence, and helping me to understand what I needed to do to manage it. By contrast, urologists were more mechanical. My urological surgeon even described himself as a "glorified mechanic." If you can see a clear path to going for physical therapy, I hope you will find it as useful as I have.

[icgirl]

Patrick, I'm glad to hear that you had good results from Physical Therapy. My experience was that the PT was knowledgeable, offered more personal attention than a doctor, and had insight. She maintained a professional demeanor although the exercises I did w/ her were somewhat invasive (I was hooked up to a machine at one point doing kegels). I just don't think I can spend that much on PT at the moment. So I'm exploring pelvic floor yoga from home. My goal is to get more flexible in the new year.