Hip Dysplasia

Hey guys, my name is David. I’m a 22 year old powerlifter who has been powerlifting for about 2 years and 7 months. It has become my life. Unfortunately last August I injured my left hip while I was running. Since then I have talked to 2 sports injury specialists and had 2 MRIs. I have hip dysplasia and it has caused a stress edema to form on the ball of my hip and it has caused a torn labral. Doctors said this was caused from my heavy squats and deadlifts. The stress edema has not shown a lot of signs of healing, however the doctors have told me even once it heals to never powerlifting again. I’m looking for any way to safely continue the sport I have grown to love. I haven’t squatted or deadlifted since I got injured for fearing of potentially breaking my hip, which is what I’ve been told can happen with the stress edema. And I definitely don’t want to do anything that will mess my hip up forever. If you have any insight on what I could do or how I could safely manage this I would really appreciate it.

Where are you located, David?

Massachusetts

Massachusetts

I was hoping I’d personally know a good therapist in the area, but I unfortunately don’t. You could try checking out the Clinical Athlete directory to see whether there’s someone around there you could see for further advice.

It is interesting that you sustained the injury while running, and yet they are confidently saying that this was “caused by squats and deadlifts”. I think they have unfortunately instilled quite a lot of fear in you (evidenced by “I haven’t squatted or deadlifted since I got injured for fearing of potentially breaking my hip, which is what I’ve been told can happen with the stress edema. And I definitely don’t want to do anything that will mess my hip up forever”) which I think was pretty harmful. I think it is extremely unlikely that you will break your hip or cause permanent damage.

How have your symptoms changed since this all started? What do you feel now?

Perhaps relevant anecdote: a while back I was chatting at my gym with someone from Hospital for Special Surgery (a highly rated orthopedic hospital), who said their experience was a lot of runners, especially women, were being treated for stress fractures and the like in their lower body, while essentially no lifters had these injuries. She planned to give a presentation to women runners recommending lifting to ameliorate the effects of running.

OTOH, my wife has had a few doctors recommending she stop lifting or stop valsalva while lifting in light of her hip pain. They all said they had no experience lifting and could not cite any reasons for the recommendations (they seemed almost proud of their ignorance of the subject). Tai Chi seems a popular recommendation for hip pain and lower back pain (at least, around these parts), again with no evidence. A Tai Chi teacher we know said she gets a lot of this and, while she’s happy to have the business, she wonders why it’s recommended.

Doctors have definitely put a decent amount of fear in me from this. But in my non-expert opinion I can see how they think squats or deadlifts caused the stress edema. I’m not an avid runner or even run regularly, i was playing baseball and thats why i was running. They said I had a build up of stress on the ball of my hip and the running was a breaking point. Since the injury I’m not really feeling pain but a mild ache like I know its injured. My last MRI, probably 4-5 months ago, didn’t show any signs of healing on the edema. I’m not limping or anything but its a mic of feeling pressure in the hip and an ache. Sometimes it feels fine, it’s really a day by day thing. My biggest fear is squats or deadlifts did cause this mixed with my hip dysplasia, and that the pressure will build up to the point where the ball of my hip cracks or breaks or something. Too young for an injury like that