Could This Be the Real Cause of Your Hip Pain?
How to Relieve Hip Pain
Medically reviewed by Laura Campedelli, DPT
Table of Contents
Home Remedies for Hip Pain
Pain Relievers
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Specialist-Driven Procedures
Surgery
Key Takeaways
Resting and using a hip brace or walking cane can help ease hip pain.
Exercise like walking and stretching can improve blood flow and hip flexibility.
Finding the right treatment to relieve hip pain often depends on what’s causing it. Conservative measures like pain relievers and home remedies can be used for a sudden, isolated injury. Physical therapy, injections, and surgery may be needed for more chronic or complicated causes of hip pain. Some strategies, such as an osteoarthritis weight loss plan, may be effective for long-term pain relief.1
This article presents treatment options for relieving hip pain, such as rest and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).2 It also includes newer, minimally invasive procedures like radio frequency ablation.
woman holding her hip in pain
m-gucci / Getty Images
Home Remedies for Hip Pain
No matter the cause of your hip pain, there’s a good chance you may start at home with some basic interventions. They may work to resolve pain from a simple injury or to relieve symptoms as you wait for more comprehensive care, such as a steroid injection. Some options to start with include:
Rest, particularly if activity was the cause of your hip pain
A hip brace, to help support the joint, or a walking cane to help with mobility2
Using a wedge pillow as you sleep, or changing your sleep position3
Arthritis Foundation. Hip pain at night?
Massage, which can offer short-term improvement in symptoms4
Applying heat or cold can help to relieve your symptoms. Ice is generally better for swelling and inflammation (especially after surgery, or with acute injuries, bursitis, or tendinitis) while heat is better for conditions like osteoarthritis.5 You can try alternating heat and cold, too.
Once the pain has lessened, you can try the following methods to promote healing.
When to See a Healthcare Provider for Hip Pain
If hip pain interferes with your ability to perform everyday tasks, schedule an appointment with a healthcare provider to address your symptoms. Seek immediate medical attention if you fall or feel like your hip gave out, causing pain with standing and movement of your leg. These are possible signs that you may have fractured or dislocated your hip.
Hydrotherapy
Whirlpools and tubs that submerse the hip in water can help improve blood flow to the hip and reduce pain. Pools are often heated to relax tight muscles and stiff joints, but cold water immersion can also be used to decrease inflammation.6
Exercise
Exercise is considered a core treatment option for hip pain.7 In fact, a 2023 review of studies involving 17,431 people with hip or knee osteoarthritis suggests that the benefits of exercise are comparable to taking oral NSAID pain relievers.8
Aerobic exercise, including low-impact activities like walking and bicycling, can help increase blood flow to the hip to decrease pain and stiffness. Stretching can help improve flexibility of the muscles at the hip joint, including hip flexors, and piriformis muscles. Resistance exercises and strength training boost hip joint support and decrease injury risk.
Mind-body exercise like yoga, with its many stretches, also can be part of exercise therapy.8
Weight Loss
Weight loss is considered a core intervention for hip pain in people diagnosed with obesity or overweight. Extra weight places stress on the joints and muscles.9 Researchers note that of the 38,606 primary hip replacements done in Australia in 2020, about three-fourths involved people who were overweight.10
Talk to your healthcare provider about diet, exercise, and medication options that can help you to lose weight.
Pain Relievers
You can try pain relievers to treat hip pain. Some over-the-counter medications can offer fast relief for hip pain, though your healthcare provider may recommend prescription options.
Over-the-Counter Medications
Over-the-counter pain medications such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil), or NSAIDs like naproxen sodium (Aleve), can help to reduce hip pain, swelling, and inflammation.6
Topical Pain Relievers
Over-the-counter creams and ointments, especially those that contain capsaicin, an extract derived from chili peppers, can be applied topically to the hip to help relieve pain by decreasing the intensity of pain signals sent along nerve pathways.11
Prescription Medications
If symptoms are severe enough, your healthcare provider may prescribe opioid medications like oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and tramadol to help relieve pain. Corticosteroids such as cortisone and prednisone may also be prescribed to reduce inflammation.6
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Hip pain is often relieved through complementary and alternative therapies, either alone or used with other strategies as part of an integrated treatment plan.
Chiropractic Care
Chiropractors can make adjustments to the spine and hips and use other manual techniques and therapeutic modalities to provide pain relief. Chiropractic care can help manage symptoms, but generally cannot fix the underlying issue causing hip pain.12
Acupuncture
Acupuncture involves inserting thin needles into the muscles of the hip to help relieve pressure points and reduce pain. Acupuncture is more effective for superficial conditions that affect the soft tissues, rather than conditions that are deep within the hip joint that are difficult to access.6
There is no clear evidence of a benefit with hip osteoarthritis pain.4
Supplements and Herbs
Certain dietary supplements can help support healthy cartilage cells to protect the hip joint from wear and tear. Glucosamine and chondroitin can help repair damaged cartilage in the hip joint. Vitamin D3 is also important for maintaining good bone health and supporting immune system functioning to decrease inflammation throughout the body.6
Certain herbs are thought to play a role in promoting a healthy immune system and reducing inflammation, including licorice, ginseng, cat’s claw, and echinacea. Other herbs like Chinese skullcap, devil’s claw, curcumin, yucca, ginger, and witch hazel may be beneficial for decreasing joint pain associated with arthritis.6
Always talk to your healthcare provider before taking any supplements. Herbal supplements can decrease the effectiveness of prescribed drugs a patient may already be taking.
About Supplements
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate supplements the way it regulates prescription drugs. That means some supplement products may not contain what the label says. When choosing a supplement, look for independently tested products and consult a healthcare provider, registered dietitian nutritionist (RD or RDN), or pharmacist.
Specialist-Driven Procedures
Some treatments for hip pain are provided by specialists trained to help with your healing and recovery. That’s often the case after surgery for a hip condition, if you experience an injury, or when a chronic condition is the cause and other interventions don’t provide relief.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy can help relieve hip pain by improving joint mobility, range of motion, balance, and strength to help with everyday tasks like sitting, standing, and walking. A physical therapist will evaluate your legs and examine your gait pattern to check for muscle imbalances. They’ll give you exercises and manual treatment to help address your areas of limitation.13
Injections
Cortisone injections can be injected into your hip by your healthcare provider to help relieve inflammation within the hip joint or surrounding soft tissue. Intra-articular injections are injected directly into the hip joint to relieve problems with the cartilage or hip joint surface that occur with arthritis.13
Injections can also be injected into the trochanteric bursa to help treat hip bursitis, or directly into the psoas muscle tendon, which lies on top of the hip joint to treat tendinitis.13
Radiofrequency Ablation
A radiofrequency ablation (RFA) can be used to treat some types of hip pain. It is a technique used to intentionally destroy tissue in order to limit pain signals transmitted by the nerves. Some studies have demonstrated a benefit from using RFA to treat chronic hip pain.14 Other researchers say there’s not yet enough evidence and more study into RFA use for hip pain is needed.2
Surgery
Some people may need hip surgery to treat a specific condition. These procedures can range from a minimally invasive hip repair to a total hip replacement.
Hip Arthroscopy
Hip arthroscopy, or hip scope, is a minimally invasive surgical procedure where small incisions less than one inch in length are used to insert a small camera to view the inside of the hip joint. Surgical tools are then inserted into the incisions and guided by the camera to debride structures or remove problematic tissue. A hip arthroscopy can also be performed to repair a torn labrum, a ring of cartilage in the hip joint that provides support and stability.13
Hip Replacement
For severe osteoarthritis of the hip that does not improve with nonsurgical options, a total hip replacement, or arthroplasty, is performed. The entire head of the femur, or ball in the ball-and-socket hip joint, is cut off and replaced with a metal stem with a ball attached to the end. The acetabulum, or socket of the hip joint, is then lined with a metal cup. These metal pieces help the joint move more smoothly without pain and avoid direct bone-on-bone contact that results from worn away cartilage.15
Hip Resurfacing
Hip resurfacing is similar to a hip replacement, where a metal cup is inserted into the hip socket to decrease pain caused by degradation of cartilage. The head of the femur is shaved down and topped with a metal cap instead of being cut off completely.15
Hip Revision
A hip revision is a surgical procedure used to repair a previous hip replacement that has become damaged over time due to injury, infection, or wear and tear with aging.
