Pubic symphysis & hip pain help?

by Caitlin
(Ct)

I'm 4.5 months post partem. I was diagnosed with pubic symphysis dysfunction after my first pregnancy and it got severe with this most recent pregnancy. After giving birth in April it got a little better, by July the pain minimal. The problem now is I have a good amount of pain on my left back (SI joint area) and the side and front of my hip.


I've been seeing a massage therapist to help but my hip flexors, quads and hamstrings are extremely tight. I stretch and use a foam roller, heat and ice but I just can't shake this pain. Any advice?

I'm an active person, low weight lifting and 4-5 mile walks 5 times a week.

Motrin works wonders on my discomfort but I just don't want to take it every day.

Hello Caitlin,
As I understand it, you've been in pain for about three year, or longer. What's needed here is a good diagnosis. Pubic symphysis dysfunction is too vague for me after all this time.

Have any xrays been taken of your pelvis, and have you seen a specialist?

Let's start by ruling out a hip condition. Lie on your back and pull your right knee to your chest, and then towards the opposite shoulder. Now rotate the hip, using the knee as a lever. Remember what you feel. Now repeat with the naughty hip. Is there a significant difference?

Lying on your left side, ask hubby, using some hand cream, to run his hand down the side of the thigh towards the knee. Repeat on the left thigh. A difference?

Get a pin and prick around the side of the thigh, towards the groin area. Repeat left. Any sensory change?

Then, lying on your tum, ask him to press fairly firmly on both sides of the lower spine and moving up towards where the thoracic spine and ribs begin. Is there significant pain on the left about five joints up from the sacrum?

Let me have some answers, keeping to this thread.

There really are 101 possibilities. Isn't it time you saw a local chiropractor seeing that mainline medicine has failed so dismally?

Dr B

Secondly, sit on the edge of the bed and, using some cream, run your thumb down the right groin, along the pubic bone, and then down the inner thigh. Quite firmly. Repeat on your left groin.

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