Lower Right Back Pain

What does lower right back pain feel like?

Lower right back pain can happen anywhere on the right side of your back between your hips and the bottom of your rib cage. Having low back pain just on one side can happen for many reasons. While many of them aren’t serious, sometimes it’s a sign of an issue that needs medical care.

Lower right back pain can feel different depending on the cause. It might feel like:

• Aching
• Burning
• Dull
• Pins and needles or tingling
• Sharp
• Spasming or cramping
• Stabbing
• Twisting

What can cause lower right back pain?

Lower right back pain can happen for many reasons, including:

• Mechanical causes
• Nervous system causes
• Other diseases and causes
• Referred pain

Mechanical causes

Mechanical causes have to do with your back itself. That includes your spine, back muscles and soft tissues. Back pain from these causes can happen because of injuries, age-related wear-and-tear or diseases. And a few of them happen for unavoidable, normal reasons.

Some examples of mechanical causes include:

• Age-related issues like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis
• Facet joint syndrome
• Strain from having overweight or obesity
• Herniated disks or degenerative disk disease
• Injuries from events like car crashes or falls, which can cause issues like fractured vertebrae or whiplash
• Pregnancy
• Repetitive strain injuries (including posture-related ones) from work, hobbies or other activities
• Sacroiliac (SI) joint dysfunction
• Sprains and strains of soft tissues, like muscles and ligaments

Nervous system causes

Lower right back pain can also come from conditions affecting your spinal cord or the spinal nerves that branch off it. Some examples of nervous system causes include:

• Arachnoiditis
• Cauda equina syndrome
• Narrowing of your spinal canal (spinal stenosis) or spinal nerve openings (foraminal stenosis)
• Pinched nerves
• Sciatica

Other diseases

Some conditions that affect your whole body can cause back pain. These are often chronic conditions, meaning they’re long-lasting or lifelong. They include:

• Congenital conditions, like spina bifida
• Genetic conditions, like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or Marfan syndrome
• Infections — especially those in or near your spine, or those that affect your nerves, like shingles
• Inflammatory and autoimmune diseases like ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia or multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Spine curve conditions like scoliosis or kyphosis
• Tumors, including cancers and noncancerous growths

Referred pain

Referred pain is when you feel pain in a different place from the source of the pain. You can have referred pain in your lower back from conditions that affect internal organs. It happens because where you feel the pain shares nerve connections with the source of the pain.

Some examples include:

• Digestive system conditions like appendicitis, gallbladder inflammation or pancreatitis
• Female reproductive system conditions, like endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease and uterine fibroids
• Kidney conditions, like kidney stones and infections
• Male reproductive system conditions, like prostatitis or testicular torsion
• Severe or even dangerous circulatory conditions, such as abdominal aortic aneurysm

How is lower right back pain treated?

The treatments for lower right back pain vary widely. They depend on many factors, especially:

• The cause of the pain
• How severe the pain is and how long it lasts
• How the pain affects your life, like your job, hobbies, social activities and other things
• Your health history

First-line treatments for lower right back pain can include:

• Cold or heat packs
• Over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen, or NSAIDs like ibuprofen or naproxen
• Prescription pain medicines, anti-inflammatory drugs or muscle relaxers
• Rest
• Stretching exercises

When your pain or its cause is more severe, your provider may recommend further treatments, like:

• Complementary therapies, such as acupuncture or massage therapy
• Ergonomic changes to prevent further damage from repetitive strain injuries
• Physical therapy
• Pain management procedures, like nerve blocks or botulinum toxin A (Botox®) injections
• Surgery

Your healthcare provider is the best person to talk to about treatments. They can explain your options and offer guidance.

Referred pain treatments

Referred pain treatments are very different from treatments for other back pain causes. Some examples include:

• Appendicitis: Antibiotics and/or surgery
• Endometriosis: Surgery
• Infections: Medicines to treat the cause, especially antibiotics for bacterial infections
• Kidney stones: Waiting for the stone to pass or surgery if the stone is too large

Because there are so many variables, your healthcare provider is the best person to ask for more info. They can tailor the explanation to your specific situation.

What are the possible complications or risks of not treating lower right back pain?

The possible complications of not treating lower right back pain depend mainly on the cause. If your pain is from a pulled muscle or whiplash, your risk of complications is low. All you need to do is wait for it to heal.

But when lower right back pain is long-lasting or comes from serious conditions, not treating it can have major consequences. Nerve-related causes can lead to nerve damage, weakness and even paralysis. Untreated infections can spread and cause life-threatening events like sepsis.

And pain itself can be harmful in the long run. That’s because having chronic pain can change how your nervous system handles pain. That can lead to conditions like:

• Central pain syndrome
• Complex regional pain syndrome
• Conditions where you feel pain more intensely (hyperalgesia) or from things that shouldn’t hurt (allodynia)

Being in pain can also disrupt your life in all kinds of ways. It can affect your job, your hobbies, how you spend time with loved ones and more. That’s why back pain is one of the leading disability causes worldwide.

Can lower right back pain be prevented?

Some causes of lower right back pain are preventable. But many happen unpredictably or for reasons you can’t help. Some things you can do to reduce your risk of lower right back pain include:

• Lift carefully. Lifting with your back instead of your legs is an easy way to hurt yourself.
• Stay active. Physical activity can help with back flexibility and strength. Core exercises for your abs can help you avoid back pain. And staying active can help you reach and maintain a weight that’s healthy for you. That’s good for your back, too.
• Don’t neglect nutrition. Getting enough calcium and vitamin D can help you avoid back injuries from osteoporosis.
• Focus on your posture. Over time, your posture has a huge impact on your lower back health. Good posture can help with that. And if you have a job where strain or posture could lead to back pain, ergonomics can help.

Your healthcare provider may have guidance or resources to help you avoid lower right back pain, too.

When should lower right back pain be treated by a healthcare provider?

You should see a provider when you have back pain that:

• Lasts for a week and doesn’t get better or gets worse, even with rest
• Starts to interfere with your regular activities
• Happens with fever, night sweats, nausea or vomiting
• Happens with groin pain, or pain during or after sex
• Happens along with seeing blood in your poop or pee
• Happens with tingling or numbness in your legs

Back pain is an emergency and needs immediate care if:

• Your pain is so severe, it makes it hard to move or do your usual activities
• You also have severe abdominal pain, especially in your lower right belly
• You lose feeling in one or both legs, or have weakness in your legs
• You have sudden incontinence, making you pee or poop yourself
• Your pain starts and becomes severe very suddenly

Is lower right back pain normal in pregnancy?

Yes, lower back pain — on either side — is very common during pregnancy.