Hip pain at night is a symptom that could be caused by a variety of conditions. It can be a sign of bone cancer, but it’s also possible that the pain is being caused by something else. If you’re experiencing hip pain that worsens at bedtime, make an appointment with your healthcare provider to have the issue checked out.
Cancers that develop in the hip are rare. They can be primary, meaning that they start in the hip bone or a surrounding structure like ligaments, or metastatic, which means that the cancer started somewhere else in the body and then moved to the hip bone. Metastatic cancers are more common than primary cancers.
Bone cancers often cause hip pain by weakening the bone, leading to fractures. This is because cancer cells are unable to grow or repair themselves in the same way that healthy tissue can.
The most common type of hip cancer is osteosarcoma, which occurs in the lower part of the thigh bone (femur). It’s more likely to affect men than women and typically happens in people over 60. Osteosarcoma usually doesn’t cause symptoms, but if it does, the most common ones are pain in the front of the hip and limping.
Other types of bone cancer that may cause hip pain are sarcoma, myeloma and lymphoma. Sarcoma and myeloma can cause hip pain when cancerous cells form in the hip bone marrow. Lymphoma is a type of leukemia that causes the bone marrow to produce too many cancerous cells.
While there is no definitive way to prevent hip cancer, a regular routine of screenings with blood tests and X-rays may help you identify potential problems early on. This is especially important if you’re over 50 and have a family history of bone or prostate cancer.
If you have a strong family history of these diseases, you should discuss this with your healthcare provider and ask about additional screenings to detect them early. Also, be sure to follow your healthcare provider’s advice on how to take care of yourself during a cancer treatment regimen.
If hip pain isn’t caused by a serious health condition, it might be related to the position you sleep in or your mattress. It can also be caused by tight muscles in your back, buttocks, legs and abdomen, which pull on bones like your thigh bone. Light stretching exercises can usually relieve this type of hip pain. You can also use over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to reduce inflammation and ease the pain. Be careful not to rely on these medications long-term as they can have side effects.
