Hernial facts
When an organ or a fascia of an organ leaves its normal cavity, the resulting condition is called a hernia. It’s important to know what causes this condition and, above all, what is a hernia and what is not.
Pain isn’t a necessary symptom of a hernia, although it does happen. People can live with a hernia practically all their lives without really suffering from it. I personally know someone who lived with a Pantaloon hernia for the longest time and only really realized he had it when he went to the doctor to get treated for something else around the same area.
Strangely, one of the most common types of hernia that people suffer from is not a hernia at all. The so called “sportsman hernia”, technically called an athletic pubalgia, is a painful condition that affects the groin area that affects athletes. It is common knowledge that soccer and hockey players suffer from this condition the most, probably because dribbling or skating is harder on the groin. The affected individual will experience pain when stretching, twisting the hip and turning while running. It is a condition that affects both professional and recreational athletes and at the most extreme cases it requires surgery to repair.
Going back to real hernias, one of the most common is the inguinal hernia. If you experience a bulge in your groin area that is made more prominent by sitting down or coughing and that retracts when lying down, you probably suffer from an inguinal hernia. It is a condition that needs surgery to be treated.
Another common hernia is the femoral hernia. It happens close to the intestine or the lower abdomen area and it also manifests itself as a bulge that may change in size during the day. And like most hernias, a femoral hernia requires surgery to be fully treated and healed.
Umbilical hernias are more common in people of African descent and mainly in the male population. It is causes by a weakness of the area where the umbilical cord meets the stomach which causes a hernia to appear. Unlike most hernias, these will often heal for themselves with no need for surgery, although there’s still a chance of it being both specifically bad or causing other, called satellite, conditions and in that case they’ll require surgery or even emergency surgery.
If you suspect that you suffer from a hernia, remember to contact your doctor immediately.
