Symptom checker
Leg Pain Symptom Checker
Leg pain is the symptom where the spine is most often blamed and most often innocent. The same heaviness and cramping while walking can come from a narrowed spinal canal, from the arteries supplying the leg, from the hip joint, or from the nerves in the feet. Those are four different specialists, so getting the direction right early saves months.
Free symptom checker, built by spine surgeons
Answer questions about your symptoms and add your MRI, CT or X-ray report if you have one. You get a written summary of what your answers point toward, and what to ask about next.
Start the free assessmentWhat the assessment asks you
- Whether the pain builds up as you walk and how far you get before it starts.
- What relieves it, in particular whether you have to sit or whether leaning forward is enough.
- Whether it is worse walking uphill or downhill, which separates two of the causes.
- Whether the feet are numb, cold, or changed in colour.
- Whether the pain starts in the back or groin before it reaches the leg.
Conditions this can point to
Each guide below is written by a spine surgeon and sets out what the condition is, how it is assessed, and the warning signs it carries.
- Lower Back
Lumbar Spinal Stenosis with Neurogenic Claudication
A degenerative narrowing of the lower spine's spinal canal that causes leg pain, heaviness, and cramping when standing or walking: symptoms that ease when you sit or lean forward.
- General
Vascular Claudication as a Spine Mimic
Cramping leg pain caused by narrowed arteries during walking closely mimics the neurogenic claudication of lumbar spinal stenosis, making accurate diagnosis essential before any treatment begins.
- General
Critical Limb Ischemia as a Spine Mimic
A limb-threatening loss of blood flow to the leg or foot that can be mistaken for severe spinal stenosis or radiculopathy, but requires urgent vascular care rather than spine treatment.
- Lower Back
Lumbar Radiculopathy
A pinched or inflamed nerve root in the lower back that sends sharp, burning, or electric pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness down the leg.
- Lower Back
Lumbar Disc Herniation
When part of a disc in the lower back displaces and presses on a nerve root, causing sciatica: pain, numbness, or weakness down the leg.
- General
Hip Osteoarthritis as a Spine Mimic
Hip osteoarthritis frequently mimics lumbar spine conditions by producing groin, thigh, and buttock pain that overlaps with spinal nerve-root territories, making accurate diagnosis essential before any treatment is started.
- General
Peripheral Neuropathy as a Spine Mimic
A disorder of the peripheral nerves that produces numbness, tingling, burning pain, and weakness resembling a spinal pinched nerve or cord compression.
Common questions
- Is my leg pain coming from my back or my hip?
- Hip pain classically sits in the groin and can travel to the knee but rarely past it, and it is usually reproduced by rotating the hip. Spinal nerve pain tends to run in a band down the back or side of the leg, often below the knee, and usually brings numbness or tingling with it. Both can coexist, which is why the assessment asks about the groin and the foot separately.
- How can I tell if leg pain when walking is my spine or my circulation?
- Both cause pain that builds up while walking. The separators are what relieves it and what position you are in. Spinal narrowing tends to ease when you lean forward, so pushing a trolley or cycling is easier than walking upright, and standing still may not be enough. Circulation pain usually eases with standing rest alone and is not helped by leaning forward. The assessment asks these directly because they point at different specialists.
- What does it mean if my leg feels heavy rather than painful?
- Heaviness, deadness or a legs-giving-way feeling that comes on with walking and eases with rest is a recognised way that spinal canal narrowing presents, and it is often described without much pain at all. It is worth reporting in those words rather than translating it into a pain score, because the wording is diagnostic.
- Which doctor should I see for leg pain?
- It depends which of the four common sources it is, which is the problem this checker is built to solve. The summary tells you what your answers point at, so you can start with the right specialty instead of working through them in sequence.
Want to read through the possibilities instead of answering questions? The leg pain differential guide compares the spinal causes side by side with the conditions that mimic them.
This symptom checker is general education, not medical advice, and it cannot diagnose you. It cannot account for your examination findings or your full history. Use it to prepare for an appointment with a qualified clinician, not to replace one. If you have any of the warning signs listed on this page, seek urgent care now.