Hip condition
Hip osteoarthritis is the joint that hurts somewhere else. The pain of a worn hip is usually felt in the groin, often down the front of the thigh, and sometimes almost entirely in the knee — which is why people arrive pointing at the wrong place, and why some spend months treating a knee that was never the problem. The good news sits alongside that: an arthritic hip responds better to the right exercise than almost any other arthritic joint, and when it eventually stops responding, hip replacement is one of the most reliably successful operations in all of surgery.
Tap any that apply to you — this is guidance, not a diagnosis, but it tells you how quickly to act.
One or more of those deserve prompt assessment. A hot, painful hip with fever, or a hip that cannot bear weight after a fall, needs seeing today — infection and fracture are treated as emergencies. Persistent night pain and childhood hip history both change what we look for on imaging.
Good news — nothing urgent on that list. Groin stiffness and pain that eases as you move is the ordinary pattern of hip osteoarthritis. It is worth assessing properly all the same: the earlier the exercise programme starts, the more hip you keep.
Cartilage in the hip wears when the joint is loaded in ways it was not shaped for, or for longer than it was built to last. Age matters, but it is rarely the whole story — and several of the causes below are treatable long before arthritis arrives:
Three things carry most of the load here, and none of them requires a hospital. Move it regularly — an arthritic hip stiffens fastest when it is spared, so daily movement through comfortable range matters more than any single exercise; cycling, swimming and walking all qualify. Strengthen what surrounds it — the muscles around the hip and the gluteals behave as shock absorbers, and when they weaken the joint takes what they used to. Reduce what it carries — weight management works powerfully here because the hip bears several times body weight with each step, and a walking stick held in the opposite hand offloads the joint substantially, which surprises most people who assumed it belonged on the sore side. Add sensible pacing: spread the demanding tasks across the week rather than stacking them, and judge a new activity by how the hip feels the next morning rather than during.
Function tells us more than any scan — tap the one that fits:
Stiffness is the early stage — and the most rewarding one to treat. Range-of-movement work and hip strengthening genuinely change the trajectory when they start here, and this is the point where the years ahead are still yours to shape.
When distance shrinks, the hip is setting your agenda. There is still substantial room to work with — structured strengthening, load management and a properly used walking aid — and it is the right moment to map out what the coming years look like rather than waiting to find out.
Pain at rest and through the night is the classic signal that conservative care has done its work. This is the stage where hip replacement is discussed properly — and where waiting longer costs muscle strength that makes recovery harder afterwards.
Treatment climbs a ladder, and most people stay on its lower rungs for years:
Tap each card to reveal the truth:
Usually stiffness rather than pain. Putting on socks and shoes becomes awkward, getting out of a car takes a moment, and the hip feels tight after sitting. Pain, when it arrives, is typically felt in the groin or the front of the thigh rather than over the side of the hip, and it eases once you are moving. Losing the ability to turn the leg inwards is often the earliest measurable change.
Because the joint and the skin over the knee share nerve supply, an arthritic hip commonly refers pain down the front of the thigh to the knee. Some people arrive convinced the knee is at fault and are surprised when the knee examines normally while the hip does not. It is a well-recognised pattern, and it is one reason a hip examination belongs in the assessment of unexplained knee pain.
For most people the best hip osteoarthritis treatment is not surgery. Structured exercise — strengthening the muscles around the hip and keeping range of movement — has the strongest evidence of anything we offer, alongside weight management and sensible activity changes. A walking aid used in the opposite hand offloads the joint considerably. When those stop holding the line, hip replacement becomes the discussion, not before.
No. Plenty of people with arthritic changes on X-ray manage for years, sometimes indefinitely, with exercise and load management. Replacement enters the conversation when pain persists at rest and at night, walking distance shrinks, and everyday tasks like dressing and stairs have become a daily negotiation — not because a scan looks a certain way. The decision belongs to your function, not your film.
It won't. Cartilage is living tissue that responds to regular, moderate loading, and the muscles around the hip act as its shock absorbers — letting them weaken transfers more load to the joint, not less. What aggravates an arthritic hip is sudden spikes in activity, not consistent training. The right programme is progressive, and discomfort that settles within a day is acceptable.
Same-day appointments are usually available. Call or book online — our team will take it from there.
