
Let’s say you have the symptoms of a hernia and you’re concerned you might have one. These symptoms may include pain when you bend, cough, or lift something; a heavy feeling or pressure inside your abdomen; constipation; swelling underneath your skin around your groin, or a burning sensation where the swelling is.
What do you do?
The first thing you’ll need to do is to see a good hernia specialist to make sure that a hernia is actually the problem. If you are in fact diagnosed, you’ll need to decide whether to have a hernia operation or leave it alone.
Many people who are diagnosed with a hernia decide to ignore it—either because they don’t want to have an operation or they don’t have very much pain. In some cases, in fact, there’s no pain at all, and patients convince themselves to just wait and see if their symptoms become…