MP symptoms in front, not side of thigh?
 

Hi, I've had pain and numbness in a small patch on the front of my thigh, about an inch above my knee, for a month or two now. It starts as mild pins and needles on waking, and gets worse as the day progresses, making me unable to walk by the late afternoon or stand by evening.

I'm still quite overweight but I have been losing weight very quickly - about three stone in the last three months.

I saw my GP this morning who diagnosed MP after a thorough exam (all reflexes ok , full strength etc) but everything I've read suggests the pain from MP should be on the outside of the thigh rather than the front, and this area is from the femoral nerve rather than the LFCN as in MP.

Any suggestions or advice? Does anyone here have MP affecting the front, not the side, of the thigh?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mine was in the front for the most part. It started out with feelings of water running down my leg, and progressed to painful lightning like stabbing. I called it the 100 bees sting.

I had it for years....then Lidoderms came out, and I tried them placed in the upper thigh where the nerve exits the abdomen.
This numbed the nerve and after 2 weeks of doing this... the nerve stopped firing. I get warnings that the remission might end when I expose that area to any heat source--- heating pad, steam room or hot bath tub. But overall I am enjoying my remission.

This link has a diagram of the lateral femoral nerve pathway, to illustrate where to put the Lidoderms.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/0401/p2109.html

Thanks for your help. That's reassuring as I'd begun to think it couldn't be MP because of the location - and as a worst-case-scenario kind of guy I didn't fancy many of the alternative causes (though I'm still staying in regular contact with GP just in case of course).

As for Lidoderms, they are (AFAICT) only prescribed in the UK for shingles / PHN, and even then only from specialists rather than GPs. But I'll fight that battle if it comes to it, and hope for a swifter resolution to this pain...

thanks again - Merry Christmas :-)

When I was looking for answers for my MP pain, and that was YEARS ago BTW..... I found some information about presentation of the symptoms. Seems that people have varying anatomical presentations due to genetic variance and placement of the nerve.

Some have this nerve being compressed at L4 level, some at L5 level, etc. Mine appeared after a C-section, and so I suspect mine is coming from compression at the hip--the nerve exit being compressed. But people can have this damage from bone marrow tests or donation, because a needle damaged it as it entered the abdomen. Or at the spinal level from disc or spur irritation, or as in my case a surgery which was looking for ovarian tumors, during my C-section. This nerve can be compressed or damaged in many places along its path.

I even met a doctor who said a blood clot in the thigh can cause MP. So it is not just one factor one must look at to decide how to go about treatment.

Hi Matzie,

Sorry to hear you are suffering from MP. It can be very painful. Many have a spontaneous relief of symptoms in a short time interval. Others can suffer with it for a lifetime.

I happen to be a lifer with MP. Mine began on the side of my thigh but soon after, encompassed the front of my thigh as well. MP can be anterior, lateral, or both.

In the United States, there are some "over the counter" patches you might try since you are unable to obtain the Lidoderm patches of which mrsD spoke. Maybe you have something similar over the counter in the UK. Worth a try, maybe.

Check back in with us and let us know how you are doing. Hopefully, you may be one to have spontaneous relief. MP CAN be a temporary condition. Losing weight as you are doing may be the solution for you. That may be causing the pressure on the LFCN.

My nerve was damaged severely during a surgical procedure many decades ago and has only worsened with time.

Let us hope that your prognosis is good and this is just a temporary condition for you.