Otherwise known as pseudo sciatica, hip pocket sciatica is usually brought about by carrying around and sitting on an object (usually a wallet) in your back pocket. Even a very thin wallet will have this effect because it is the equivalent of sitting on a chair with a bump on one side.
Men are the chief culprits of this, hip pocket sciatica can cause pain and tingling in the buttock area and cause pain to radiate to your lower back. The hard lump you sit on interferes with the blood circulation to the gluteal muscles and it tips your pelvis up on that side. This can have a kinking affect on the lower lumbar discs which in turn can be a contributing factor to the “real” sciatica that radiates down your leg from your lower back.
The prevention is simple- take your wallet (or other objects) from your back pocket before you sit down. It is even better to find another pocket to carry it in because then it won’t matter if you forget to remove it when you sit.
It is surprising how much better this simple act can make your hips and back feel, if you are reading this and thinking “I always have my wallet in my back pocket and I feel fine” take it out for a few days and see if you feel any different.
Hip pocket sciatica is also called pseudo sciatica because it feels like sciatica but it isn’t. Sciatica can make your buttock sore through pain referring along the sciatic nerve from lumbar nerve root pressure in you lower back, sciatica is an indirect cause of hip or buttock pain. Pseudo (or hip pocket) sciatica on the other hand is a direct cause of hip and buttock pain because of direct pressure from what you are sitting on.
The very act of sitting unevenly like when you cross your legs also creates uneven weight distribution on the buttock muscles and can have a pseudo-sciatica like effect. You may get away with sitting cross-legged or on your wallet for a long time before it effects you and this is why that sitting in such a way may not be considered by yourself to be the cause of that searing pain in your butt.
Poor quality seating should be on the list of suspects for hip-pocket sciatica and lower back pain along with any objects that you my habitually carry in your back pocket. Some of us have sitting habits such as tucking a leg under your butt when sitting or maybe leaning towards one side, it is easy to do when you have been on the computer for a long time.
Hip-pocket sciatica is aptly named for more than one reason because it will end up costing you money to get it fixed.