Depends what they find.
If they find nothing wrong, it rules out a lot of scenarios and allows physio/sports med dr's to narrow the list of things down and develop a treatment plan.
if they do find things, depending on the severity you can either elect to have surgery or not.
you might be quick to rule out surgery now, but if you wake up paralyzed like i did because your disc ruptures and damages your chord you might think differently. You're not THAT old, so surgery can be pretty simple. 6 week recovery and you're back to normal. Problem is the longer you wait generally the more complicated things become.
All of this is a discussion you can have during a neuro consult, but if it were me, knowing what i know now about the consequences of not listening to my body, i would at least get the imaging so i know what is wrong (or find out there is in fact no major issue).
I suffered from chronic back pain for 28 months. I've had a sore back my whole life but i always chalked it up to the abuse i did to my body biking. The chronic pain began when i started getting shooting nerve pain down my sciatic nerve in my butt to the back of my left knee. Going from sitting to standing was dreadful. I put up with it for over 2 years, seeing every kind of doctor under the sun.
After 23 months i finally got an MRI. We learned it wasn't in fact an issue in my butt, it was a bulged disc in my lower back impinging on the nerve. I put off surgery however and developed a plan with doctors.
I woke up in February 2011 one morning paralyzed from just below my belly button down. My disc had fully ruptured in my sleep and in the process had damaged my spinal cord.
I basically had no option but to have emergency spinal surgery to repair the damage.
After 6 months of rehab im back to 100%, have zero back pain, and have a new appreciation for life.
Back pain is the worst kind of pain ever. I would never wish it on my worst enemy. It effects every facet of your life, and you're like a bear with a thorn in its paw. I had forgotten what pain free actually felt like.
If it were me, i'd get the MRI and then make the determination based on the results before just ruling it out altogether.
yes i still ride a bike…rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated