Can a Hernia Be Causing Your Groin and Abdominal Pain?

Some women who are experiencing groin or abdominal pain may be misdiagnosed with other things, especially if you are dealing with endometriosis, cysts or even fibroids.
So if you are experiencing abdominal and groin pain and feel like you have exhausted all your options, it may be time to look into the possibility that you are dealing with a hernia.

My hernia story

When I was prepping for my second surgery with an endometriosis specialist, I mentioned my groin pain. My doctor immediately said it was most likely a hernia and that he would include a general surgeon during my surgery. Sure enough, when I woke up, the general surgeon had found inguinal hernias on my right side.
Inguinal hernia, also known as groin hernias, involve tissue bulging through weak spots of muscle in the abdomen.
But before that surgery, minus the excruciating pain I was experiencing, I didn't have a noticeable bulge and it was never picked up on any scans. Because of that, doctors before my specialist kept brushing the pain off as just my cysts.
After my surgery, I did find a lot of relief from the leg pain I kept experiencing. But never figured out what could have caused it.

Things that may cause an inguinal hernia

While I don't know which reason is what caused mine, here are some possibilities:

• Heavy lifting
• Constipation or constant straining
• Previous pelvic or abdominal surgery
• Weak muscles in that general area¹

I haven't yet found much research worth sharing on whether or not endometriosis can play a role in hernias as well. But my gut tells me, it is very possible.

Gearing up for another hernia surgery

So here I am gearing up for surgery to repair another one. I had my fourth endometriosis surgery 2 months ago and we weren't prepared for another hernia. This time, it was on my left side. So at the end of this month, I will be going in to have it removed. My general surgeon said he could actually feel this one when he did an exam. It's small, but sometimes the small ones hurt worse.
It makes me wonder how many more hernias I will get. How will I prevent myself from continuing to get them? Will this be a new thing for me, hernia surgery every few years?

But still feeling grateful

I am grateful to have an amazing doctor who did find it and now an amazing surgeon who is going to repair it. Unfortunately, the surgeon who did my hernia repair on the right side might not have put the mesh in correctly because, over the last few years, I have had some horrible pain there with a small bulge.
My new surgeon said he felt the bulge and that it was the mesh. So while he is removing my hernia on the left, he will also try to repair the repair I had done on the right. Unfortunately, if the mesh has already grown into the tissue, it would be too dangerous to remove it. If that is the case, he will try injecting steroids into the tissue to see if it helps with pain and inflammation. If so, that may be something I have to do every couple of months to help with the pain!
Chronic illness is definitely always a journey. I share my hernia story with you to hopefully help raise a little more awareness that hernias are definitely possible and hopefully help anyone who is experiencing what I experienced.

Have you experienced a hernia before or do you think you may be dealing with a hernia yourself?