There are many different reasons for a sore hip or for both hips to be painful. The best way to treat sore hips is to get a doctor to determine the cause of the pain. Without knowing the cause, the hips will continue to be sore or soreness will return. It may take several different tests before a doctor can determine what is causing the pain. In the meantime, sore hips can be treated with hot and cold compresses, painkillers and sleeping on one’s back instead of the sides.

Inflammation

The tissues surrounding the hip joint can become inflamed, causing the tissues to press down on nerves. Arthritis is one of the most common causes of a sore hip. Other symptoms of arthritis in the hip include stiffness and difficulty moving the leg. Pain may lessen as the body warms up. Since there are over 100 different kinds of arthritis, diagnosis is best left to a rheumatologist.

Another type of inflammation that can cause a sore hip is bursitis. Although bursitis is often a complaint of the shoulder, the hips also are susceptible. Both the shoulders and hips have bones that roll smoothly in their sockets thanks to small sacks of fluid called bursae. But when these sacks become infected, often due to overwork, a person gets painful bursitis.

Injuries

Have you injured your hip in the last few years? Are you over 50 years old and suffered a bad fall in the last few months? These injuries can take a long time to heal. Fractures of the hip may not give off a continual bad pain, depending on where in the hip it is located. If you had fractures of the hips in the past, this makes you more prone to developing a sore hip as you get older.

Bones are not the only things that get injured in the hip area. Tendons and muscles can also become pulled, sprained or inflamed. Pain is from the hip area but the bones are not affected. Many people with bursitis in the hip also suffer from tendonitis.

Other Serious Causes

A sore hip is not a normal sign of aging. Although injuries and inflammatory conditions are the most common causes of hip pain, there are other potentially lethal conditions that your doctor may insist on testing you for, including:

• Bone cancer
• Leukemia
• Bacterial infections which travel the bloodstream into the hip bones
• Vitamin D deficiency, which can cause bones to soften
• Osteoporosis or “brittle bones” which is most often seen in people over 50
• Paget’s disease, a painful bone disease
• Back problems such as sciatica which causes a person to walk or move abnormally in order to take weight off of the back
• Avasular necrosis, which is when blood has problems flowing to the hip
• Rickets, caused by malnutrition and seen most often in children
• Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, which can cause avascular necrosis. This disease is also most often seen in children.