What kind of doctor do I need to see for my knee/hip pain?

• I am 28 and female. Overweight, but no other health problems. I've had deep, aching knee and hip pain since around 2003. Most of the time since then, I have been un- or under-insured. I'd like to finally get this figured out and treated, but not sure what kind of specialist I should go to. My latest trip to a primary-care doctor was useless. The Pain: It's a bone-deep, intense ache that radiates from knee to hip. At its worst, I would rate it a 7 on a 1-10 pain scale. I can't really tell where it "starts". It tends to be achey in the morning or later at night. It seems to correlate with cold and damp weather. It often correlates with not enough sleep. It sometimes correlates with days where I stand or walk a lot, but the pain won't usually set in until night. The joint isn't physically swollen or hot on the outside, but it feels "inflamed" on the inside. Sounds like arthritis? BUT: it never feels stiff or difficult to move. It's not weak and it doesn't give out it doesn't hurt more when I go up stairs or exercise the joint None of my other joints have abnormal pain The medical history: I was born with one hip turned slightly inward. The dr said I should grow out of it. I never did and now I have a duck walk and a definite "turned in" left foot when I walk. I haven't needed orthopedic shoes or anything but I think this might be a cause. However, while I think the left knee/hip hurts more often, the right one definitely does too sometimes. In 2010 I got a blood test for rheumatoid arthritis. It was negative. The dr. then recommended that I get X-rays. I couldn't afford it at the time. I went to a general physical last month in a new city and talked about this with the dr. He recommended that I lose weight. That was it. Yes, I am overweight, but I've also had this pain on and off since I was 18 years old, when I was significantly lighter, and I've been walking a lot recently and that hasn't seemed to increase the pain. You would think it would, if it was just from carrying too much weight when using the joint. I tried to ask what other options I could seek for other possible causes and he pretty much blew me off and kept telling me to lose weight. I really feel that while weight might be exacerbating my pain, there is something else underlying this. But I'm not sure what kind of doctor I should be seeing next. An orthopedist? A rheumatologist, even though I supposedly tested negative? I want someone who specializes in knee and hip pain, who can tell me what other possibilities besides arthritis this might be, and whether it's a bone problem, a joint problem, or something else.

• Answer:

  This sounds more like a structural issue, and so I agree that orthopedics or sports-medicine would be reasonable. But, I would note that the blood test is only for rheumatoid arthritis, which is only one of a wide spectrum of joint diseases that rheumatologists treat. So, seeing a rheumatologist wouldn't be unreasonable as well.