The Source / A field guide to feeling better
Hip & SI Joint
“Hip pain” may mean pain in the groin, outside the hip or in the buttock. Those locations open different lines of inquiry.
Can you point to it?
Select a label to explore its side of the body
Choose the closest area.
Pick a point on the close-up, or choose from the list below. Each one covers what might be going on, the details that help at a visit, and the research behind it.
Put the symptoms in context
The hip joint, the tendons around it and the lower back can all produce overlapping symptoms. A feeling that your pelvis is out of place isn’t enough to say the pain is coming from the sacroiliac joint.
Follow the question
Explore hip & si joint
Each guide explains what the condition is, what the research shows and where it runs out, and when it calls for a different kind of care than ours. An exam is how we look for which one, if any, fits you.
- Condition guide
Hip pain
Groin, outer-hip and buttock pain can point to different structures and different next steps.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Sciatica
Leg pain from an irritated nerve, what a scan can and can’t tell you, and when to get help.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Back pain
Common back-pain patterns, the warning signs, and what progress looks like in everyday life.
Understand this condition
Which hip pain guide fits yours?
Hip pain can mean the groin, outer hip or buttock, and our hip pain guide treats each as a different starting point for the exam. When it runs down your leg, the sciatica guide is also worth reading. Neither the spot nor a pelvis that feels higher on one side shows the cause; the exam looks for it.
At a first visit we'll want to know how stairs, walking, sitting and lying on your side go. Severe pain after a fall, or not being able to put weight on the leg, needs emergency care, not a chiropractic visit; the hip pain guide lists the other warning signs.
What the hip research covers
The hip trial below studied education and exercise for confirmed gluteal tendinopathy, a tendon problem, not adjusting a pelvis or hip arthritis. The hip guide also covers research on testing for possible SI joint pain, and its limits.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
Education plus exercise versus corticosteroid injection use versus a wait and see approach on global outcome and pain from gluteal tendinopathy: prospective, single blinded, randomised clinical trial
204 adults aged 35 to 70 with confirmed gluteal tendinopathy.
What it foundEducation with load management and exercise improved pain and global recovery more at eight weeks. Global improvement remained better than injection at 52 weeks.
What it can't tell usAt 52 weeks, pain didn't differ significantly from the injection group. These results are about gluteal tendinopathy, not all hip pain or hip arthritis.
Publication details & citation
Mellor et al. Education plus exercise versus corticosteroid injection use versus a wait and see approach on global outcome and pain from gluteal tendinopathy: prospective, single blinded, randomised clinical trial. BMJ. 2018. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.k1662.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.