No count for the general population; sorted by spot and patternStrong evidence
How often groin pain happens in the general population isn't known: "The incidences of groin injury and pain are unknown for the general population", a 2025 review says; in athletes, 2% to 20% depending on the sport. The NHS says pelvic pain is more common in women, often from period pain, an ovarian cyst, endometriosis or pregnancy, and also from constipation and urine infections.
For sport, an international consensus (the Doha agreement) sorts groin pain into inner thigh (adductor), hip flexor (iliopsoas), lower tummy wall (inguinal) and pubic bone patterns, says the hip joint "should always be considered", and lists urinary, gynaecological, hernia, nerve and bone causes that mustn't be missed. Most of the athletes behind it were men (our reading).
Sources 1, 2, 3
The hip jointMixed evidence
From about 45, groin pain that is worse walking, with stiffness that eases within half an hour, is often hip osteoarthritis, which NICE diagnoses without a scan. New cases of hip osteoarthritis are more common in women (men's rate was about two-thirds of women's in a meta-analysis), though how many people have it at any one time didn't clearly differ. Hip joint pain is often shown with a cupped hand above the side of the hip, and can make rising from a chair, stairs, getting in and out of a car, putting on socks and sometimes sex painful.
In younger women, a shallow socket (dysplasia) can first cause groin pain in adulthood, with clicking. On X-rays of 3,859 Danish adults it was about as common in men as women, but women were 72% of 57 people treated for it in one US series, after an average of 5 years with symptoms. A cam-shaped hip, linked with impingement, showed on scans in 24.7% of men without symptoms against 5.4% of women, so a scan finding has to fit the examination.
Sources 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Strains in sport: women get them tooMixed evidence
In football, men had about 2.4 times women's rate of groin injuries that stopped them playing (34 studies), but across 9 studies of 3,133 team-sport athletes, the odds of a hip or groin injury didn't clearly differ by sex. In one Dutch study, 40% of 434 female amateur footballers had a hip or groin injury in the previous season, mostly without missing play, and 49.3% of 337 female Gaelic games players had hip or groin pain in a year.
The cause may differ. In two small clinic series of active women (48 women in all), the hip flexors, the hip joint and the area above the groin crease mattered more than the inner thigh: in 11 women among 207 athletes, 7 were runners, 6 of them with hip flexor pain as the main source, and only 1 had inner thigh pain, and in 37 athletic women with long-standing pain, inner thigh tendon problems were 2.7%. That rests on very few women.
Sources 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Hernias: less common in women, but more often femoralStrong evidence
About 3% to 6% of women have a groin hernia in their lifetime, against 27% to 43% of men, the international hernia guideline says, but femoral hernias are about 4 times more common in women than in men. Inguinal hernias are still the commonest type in women: at one UK centre, about 1 in 5 women's groin hernias were femoral and the rest inguinal. Having more babies raised the chance of both in a large Swedish study.
A femoral hernia is "a small lump at the top of your thigh, in your groin ... about the size of a grape", mainly in women over 50, though "They can happen to anyone", the NHS says, and "Surgery is recommended". They are more often found as emergencies: about 17% of women's groin hernia repairs were emergencies against 5% of men's, and 40.6% of women's femoral repairs in Sweden. That is why the guideline advises timely repair for women rather than waiting.
Sources 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Hernias in women can hideEmerging evidence
"In female patients, the existence of a femoral hernia should be excluded in all cases of a hernia in the groin. No clinical or diagnostic test can reliably distinguish inguinal from femoral hernias in women", the international guideline says, and groin pain without a bulge can occasionally be a hernia.
In 87 women with groin pain and a normal examination, an ultrasound found hernias in 35, and at one US hernia centre, hidden hernias were more often in women. These are specialist-centre series, so they may overstate how often this happens.
Sources 19, 26, 27
Pregnancy and after the birthStrong evidence
Pelvic girdle pain affects up to 1 in 5 pregnant women to some degree: pain over the pubic bone, across the low back, between the vagina and anus, or into the thighs, worse walking, on stairs, standing on one leg, turning in bed and moving your legs apart. "PGP is not harmful to your baby", and most women with it can have a vaginal birth, the NHS says.
Round ligament pain is "very common and is not dangerous", usually from the second trimester: a sharp or stabbing pain low in the tummy or groin, often on the right, set off by sudden movement, coughing or sneezing (an NHS trust leaflet). A soft groin lump in pregnancy is usually a swollen vein that goes after the birth; hernias in pregnancy are rare. Rarely, the pubic joint separates during the birth, with severe pain at the front of the pelvis and trouble walking; most cases settle with care and support.
Sources 28, 29, 30, 19, 31
The pelvic organs and the bladderStrong evidence
Ovarian cysts "are very common and do not usually cause any symptoms", and most go away in a few months; they hurt if one bursts, is very large or twists. Endometriosis affects about 1 in 10 women of reproductive age (Endometriosis UK) and causes severe period pain, pelvic pain, pain during or after sex and pain pooing or peeing; NICE says don't rule it out on a normal examination or ultrasound, and the charity reports an average of 9 years and 4 months from first GP visit to diagnosis in the UK. Pelvic inflammatory disease is an infection that is easily treated with antibiotics if found early. About 1 in 90 UK pregnancies is ectopic, usually with symptoms between 4 and 12 weeks.
Almost half of women have a urine infection at some point. Kidney stone pain "usually starts in the side of your tummy (abdomen) or lower back" and may spread to the groin or the area around the opening of the vagina, coming and going; about 7 in 100 US women have had a stone. Pain tied to periods, sex, bleeding, discharge, peeing or a fever points away from the muscles, and a muscle or joint problem is usually tender to press and hurts with particular movements (our reading of these sources).
Sources 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Other causesEmerging evidence
A stress fracture of the neck of the thighbone causes groin pain that builds with activity and eases with rest at first; it is a larger share of stress fractures in female athletes, linked with low energy intake, missed periods and low bone density, and needs an X-ray, then often an MRI. In 259 active girls and women, bone stress injuries rose with these risk factors.
Swollen glands in the groin usually settle within 1 to 2 weeks. A third of 690 women had some pain at a bikini-line scar 2 years after a caesarean or hysterectomy, moderate or severe in 7%, often from a trapped nerve; groin pain lasting over 3 months is a possible complication of hernia repair. And a back problem can be felt in the groin "even though you don't feel pain in your back", NHS inform says.
Sources 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
Where to get help, and how fastStrong evidence
The NHS sorts these by urgency. Pelvic pain that is severe or getting worse, with feeling faint, shoulder tip pain or heavy bleeding, a femoral hernia with very bad tummy pain or sickness, and severe hip or groin pain after a fall, or not being able to put weight on the leg, are 999 calls. A painful hernia of any other kind, pelvic pain when you are or may be pregnant, blood in your pee, or a urine infection with a high temperature or back pain needs NHS 111 or an urgent GP appointment.
A groin lump, pain that keeps coming back, or hip pain that hasn't improved after 2 weeks of looking after it needs a GP. These serious causes are uncommon; the warning signs list them in full.
Sources 2, 22, 23, 49, 50, 51, 39
When a scan or test helpsStrong evidence
Hip osteoarthritis from 45 with the usual pattern needs no scan; dysplasia and impingement are confirmed on X-rays, with MRI when needed; a suspected stress fracture needs an X-ray, then an MRI. For hernias, the international guideline advises ultrasound for groin pain with no clear lump when the diagnosis is unclear, then a moving MRI or CT scan if that doesn't answer it.
A pregnancy test comes first for any pain low in the tummy if you could be pregnant, then an ultrasound. Ovarian cysts show on an ultrasound with a probe in the vagina; endometriosis may need an ultrasound, MRI or keyhole surgery, and a normal scan doesn't rule it out. A urine test checks for infection, and a CT scan, or an ultrasound in pregnancy, for a kidney stone. In pregnancy, ultrasound or MRI is considered before an X-ray of the pelvis.
Sources 5, 10, 43, 19, 37, 32, 34, 41, 52
How it usually goesEmerging evidence
New hip problems "should begin to settle within 6 weeks", NHS inform says; long-standing inner thigh pain took 8 to 12 weeks of active training in men, and hip-related pain needs at least 3 months of exercise. Ovarian cysts mostly go in a few months, swollen glands in 1 to 2 weeks and a kidney infection in about 2 weeks. Pelvic girdle pain tends not to settle fully until the baby is born. Femoral and painful groin hernias in women need repair rather than waiting, with about 4 to 6 weeks' recovery. No one can promise a timescale.
Sources 48, 53, 54, 32, 45, 55, 28, 19, 22
