MedicalFilter: What's this lump on my outer thigh?

February 17, 2008 12:29 PM

BumpFilter: Last night I noticed that my right outer thigh felt different than my left. If I had to pinpoint it I'd say it's halfway between buttock and knee, on the outside of my thigh, located closer to the back of the leg than the front. I'm 23, slim and a very healthy eater.

It's a bit bulgy, like a small circle of muscle is swollen. The lump is about the diameter of a tennis ball (though it doesn't stick out much). I may just be freaking out a bit, but to the touch it feels duller than the other leg. It doesn't hurt. It isn't loose and doesn't move about when I rub it. It's firm but not hard. What is it?

I don't want to immediately jump to the worst conclusion. So here's where my thought process has taken me so far:

- I was recently sick, so I thought it might be a swollen lymph node (is there a lymph node there?).
- I could have just bumped it or strained it (I joke around sometimes with less-than-professionally-acrobatic kicks, dancing, and physical comedy, though nothing extreme)—and again, it doesn't really hurt.
- On the weekends I sometimes spend hours sitting on an awkward woven-top stool (at a countertop) with a frame that might be 'training' my muscle into a weird position.

Of course, there are scarier medical implications to infer. I'll be scheduling an appointment with a doctor tomorrow, but being Sunday, I was hoping I could get a in-the-meantime answer to maybe assuage any fears.

Any ideas?

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (9 comments total)

Could be a ganglion cyst. However, IANAD, and you should still go see one.
posted by dilettante at 12:58 PM on February 17, 2008

On the weekends I sometimes spend hours sitting on an awkward woven-top stool (at a countertop) with a frame that might be 'training' my muscle into a weird position.

This makes me think you might have a subcutaneous infection that's slowly rising to the top. I've had a couple of these bastards in my lifetime, and they not only hurt like hell, but take weeks to heal properly after they erupt.

I am not a doctor. You should think about seeing one.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:01 PM on February 17, 2008

Nthing the doctor, but yeah... it might just be the stool. When I worked from home, I spent untold hours sitting cross-legged in a computer chair, and I ended up with visible dents in my outer thighs from where they pressed into the arms of the chair. Took a few months in a new chair before they went away, too. Good luck!
posted by Gianna at 1:12 PM on February 17, 2008

I'll be scheduling an appointment with a doctor tomorrow, but... I was hoping I could get a in-the-meantime answer to maybe assuage any fears.

Geez, folks, obviously anon. has already thought about seeing one.
posted by onshi at 1:30 PM on February 17, 2008

I have a smaller (quarter-sized, very slight bulge) lump on the outer side of one thigh. My doctor said it was a disregardable fat deposit. I asked about it during and unrelated examination. But do ask a doctor now if the doctor is cheap or free OR if the lump becomes at all sensitive OR if it changes at all.
posted by hexatron at 1:51 PM on February 17, 2008

How does it behave when you flex the muscles adjacent to it?
posted by gjc at 2:11 PM on February 17, 2008

I had a cyst in almost exactly the same location as you describe. Got a referral to a plastic surgeon, ol' lumpy's gone now.
posted by lowlife at 2:51 PM on February 17, 2008

could be a lipoma, which is an unsightly but harmless glob of fat.
posted by thinkingwoman at 3:23 PM on February 17, 2008

Lipomas are mobile and fluctuant, not firm and fixed.

Let the doc sort it out. As you already are clearly aware from the way you worded your question, there are a number of things this could be, the common ones quite benign, and the rare ones being rather bad news.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:00 PM on February 17, 2008