Muscle Spasm Inner Thigh

I am a 54 year old female who has been dealing with this same issue for several years.  I noticed it started after sleeping in a bent leg position, so I absolutely try to sleep with my legs straight.  I used to take statins for cholesterol, but between the muscle aches and leg cramps, I stopped taking them and it seems to help.  My pain is everything anyone else is experiencing and then some.  I've had both inner thighs spasm at the same time with shins, calves and toes.  I've tried to make sure my potassium is ok and have tried soap under the sheets, vitamin E, drinking more water, tonic water, Hylands leg cramps etc.  Part of my issue is nerve compression in my lower back, but I've been taking MG Bright, a magnesium supplement which had good reviews.  I have not had a major inner thigh cramp in 6 months.  I've had a couple of starts of them, but they have not gotten severe at all.  I can tell when they have even a remote possibility of starting. When they did happen the excruciating pain would cause me to let tense up so I tried to go limp. But that was almost impossible.  My poor husband would try to rub my legs, give me ice packs or whatever I screamed I needed.  What worked in the moment: pickle juice, squeezing a pillow between my thighs.  Weird, but the sodium in pickle juice releases the cramp and squeezing a pillow forces the muscle to contract against the other one.  They end much sooner than if I do this.  However, they are so intense that even if I think I'm going to have one, it makes me afraid to go to sleep.  I'm journaling when this happens and what I'm doing so I can get some better insight.  I've also stopped drinking diet soda so that I can eliminate that one.  I Hope this helps.

Just got my first cramp...and you described it perfectly...the only thing that calmed it down was prayer. All of the above did not work. Walking, stretching, massaging, and simply crying like a baby did no good. I scared my wife and myself. I hope this is not the beginning. To wake up with such severe pain is scary.

I have had exactly your same symptoms for years, to the point I think the muscle is damaged, although my doctor scoffs at this. Started taking 250 mg of Magnesium at night and what a blessing that has been. No cramps for quite a while. Still have soreness in that area tho. Doesn't hurt to take potassium also. Hope this helps.

i have had it twice, excruciating pain, helps to roll the upper leg back and forth until pain subsides, like jiggle it back and forth. . if you find a cause or remedy please let me know

Thank God for this discussion.

I have been suffering from inner thight spasms since I was 12 years old. I am now 52. When I was young, they would come about as a result of intense physical exertion.

Over the past 20 years, they come about randomly. I have been told to eat more potassium, change diet, stretch, yada yada. Nothing works.

My spasms or cramps happen in middle of the night. I will wake up, and can fee one coming on -- but now spasm yet. Then, in just a matter of a few seconds, usually less than a minute...the intense pain starts. Whether I lay in bed or stand up or sit on the edge of the bed it doesn't matter...there is nothing I can do to prevent it once it has decided to happen.

The pain when I get them is impossible to describe. I am a big, strong man, but when I get them I literally cry in pain and beg God to make me pass out or even to have my legs removed. A 30-minute spasm can cause such intense pain that I cannot even talk or even really be aware of much...I think it is almost like being in a state of shock. If I had to describe what it would feel like to have my leg cut off with a rusty old dull saw, very slowly, this would probably be it.

I am aware of the 1-10 and smiley face pain charts in the doctors office and ER. This pain is so far off the chart that I would beg for a 10 instead of the pain.

I know that I keep writing about how bad it is, but when I have described it to others, they sort of think that I am talking about simple leg cramps, calf cramps, etc. This is nothing like it. This is literally like having your leg ripped off.

I now get a few a year...but it seems when I get one that I am prone to get another in a few days. I get them mostly in my left leg, but sometimes I will get them in both legs. That is the worst.

When happening, I literally cannot even walk. The pain is so intense that often I have to get on the floor and crawl or drag myself to the shower.

What I do, is I get into the shower with the portable shower head, and blast the hottest water possble on the inner thigh until the pain subsides.

It is weird, because usually after about 15-20 mintues, the excruciating pain goes from about a 30 on a 1-10 scale, down to about an 8, almost immediately. It won't go from 30 to 25 to 20, etc... but instead will go from 30 to 8 in the snap of a finger.

Often, I can see the muscle below my skin, and it is usually balled up or knotted.

Immediately from the shower, I wil then go back to bed or a couch and put a heating pad on it, very high setting, and also for the opposite inner thigh if there was no spasm there, cause they often come in pairs.

Stretching doesn't help. It can actually make it worse. Exercise can make it worse.

My poor children have seen me experience the cramps, and it has scared them at times. My wife has no idea what to do. Neighbors have come over in the middle of the night thinking that perhaps I was shot or stabbed...screaming and begging for the pain to stop brings out those within earshot.

I hope eventually we can find out what this is and a way to resolve it or end it.

Thanks for letting me vent!!LittleTony

What kind of formulation and dosage are you using? :)

I have inner thigh spasms too, going to say spasm because its way more than a cramp, I would rather have 2 charlie horses than one of these spasms. I had a Left hip ORIF about 7 weeeks ago and walking now with a cane and the spasm was on the same side, I mean sweating and crying just wish I would pass out and there is nothing that anyone can do to help, I do find that if you drink pickle juice it does seem to help and the doctor thinks I am crazy also! Try pickle juice for cramps and.or spasms it may hep

I too have excruciating inner thigh spasms. In 2010 I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. The pain from the stenosis was non-stop for two days. From Bayer aspirin to Vicodin, nothing eased the pain. As a matter of fact, the pain from the stenosis and the inner thigh spasms feel the same....there may be some sort of correlation between nerve damage and the inner thigh spasms. The spasms in my thighs usually his without warning and nearly me to tears every time. It feels like someone is winning the blood from my veins. When it begins to travel up towards my groin area, I began to feel a crippling affect; all I can say is "no, no, no" until it is all over. Afterwards, I get a slight twitch in my nerve that alerts me to the fact that another may hit but I slowly adjust the position of my leg and it goes away. It's an unpredictable and sudden attack that can bring the hardest man to tears. I'm so drained physically after the episode passes. I'm winded and just wants to sleep for a bit. On top of all of that, it feels like someone beat me up in my inner thighs because they are sore to the touch for a day or two. I'm a 47 year old female and I feel your pain. Stay prayerful until a solution can be found for us!

I had these inner thigh cramps about three times, usually, it is the calf in back but eating about 4 banannas a week seemd to help with those.  I agree with everone these iner-thigh cramps are terrible pain- makes you cry and you just stand there (for me-not on the floor) and PRAY it goes away. I did find an article that said to lean forward as far as you can and i did that and it worked!

I do agree water is important and some feel potassium pills help salso.

3-4 minutes a day of the proper leg stretches will work wonders. They are not easy to do, especially at first, but they are well worth the minimal daily effort. Here is one: Lying on the side with the weight of the upper body resting on a bent elbow, the uppermost ankle is pulled towards the buttock. The bent knee is slowly moved backwards. The stretch is felt down the front of the thigh. The stretch is then repeated on the other side. 

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I had these... EXACTLY like you describe! They came out of nowhere... I'd NEVER had anything like them... The pain was so severe I'd squash my inner thigh with my hands as I tried to make it go away!! I was terrified of sitting on a soft chair or lying flat on a bed... For FIVE MONTHS I sat on a dining chair at our piano and tested my head on pillows... I went nuts from SLEEP DEPRIVATION... Well, it turns out it was my lower back... L4-L5 (or L5-L6?)... My MRI clearly showed two things: 1: SEVERE spinal stenosis (requiring surgery to clean-out the holes where nerves went through vertebrae (to my inner thighs!!)) 2: Slipped disc in the same spot... A second opinion confirmed neurosurgeon's diagnosis... I had both surgeries at the same time... Prob- lem was 95% solved... Interestingly... Had I not had the MRI + surgery, the stenosis would have progressed and I might have faced some permanent problems with walking/painful legs... Good luck to you...

Update: decided to find a new neurologist. Best thing I ever did. She sent me to a pain specialist that found the problem immediately. Mine is a nerve issue - S1 area I believe. I got the first round of shots that day and within a week I felt like skipping down the street! I'm not sure how long or well the shots will work but it's been great. I had my third round of shots today - pain was creeping back but not nearly as severe as before. I would love to hear about anyone else having success!

my name is Helena im a 46 yr old from georgia. i was wondering if you found out what was causing these cramps / spasms as i to have began to experience this very excact problem after i was rear ended by an 18 wheeler. any ideal or advice?

I have been getting these God-awful spasms for 10 years now. Sometimes in both legs at once. Talk about crippling! Only thing I found to work is to massage Absorbine Horse Liniment into the muscle. It's all natural, not hot. If is was hot it would make the horse go ballistic! Try it, I get it at a farm feed store. It's meant to relax the horse's muscles when they stand for a long time, an ailment called 'stocking'.

Can you please tell us what is in the "round of shots" you are getting ?