What does an inguinal hernia feel like?

What does an inguinal hernia feel like? – Having been diagnosed with an inguinal hernia, I thought I should write about my experiences over the first month since diagnosis.

Although an extremely common ailment, inguinal hernias can be somewhat debilitating, painful and distressing affairs.

Despite suffering with an inguinal hernia at time of writing, I should make it clear that I am in no way a medical professional. What I write below is based on my own feeling following my diagnosis of an inguinal hernia by my doctor.

My first advice for you if you think you may be suffering from any type of hernia is to see a doctor as soon as you can. Hernias are extremely common and the experts are the only people able to rehabilitate you back to health and fitness.

What does an inguinal hernia feel like?

I first spotted my inguinal hernia after performing a set of leg raises. Leg raises or leg lifts are an exercise touted by many as a better form of abdominal exercise. I was performing the variation where you lower one leg down at a time, 10 times, then crunch your abdominal upwards while pushing on the leg you just finished dropping for 10 seconds.

It was on one of the initial leg movements that my hernia arrived, in the form of a sudden, sharp pain in my groin. It was there, and it wasn’t going away.

The first thing I noticed was a small bulge or lump around the top of the pubic hairline. It just stuck out more on my right side than on my left side.

How it felt depended on the position I was in. Standing up for extended periods of time resulted in the bulge extending outwards, the lump on my groin getting tighter. Initially the tightness would be accompanied with the feeling of extreme dread, which would simply result in me sitting or lying down for a bit. Even at work!

Inguinal hernias come with pain. The amount of which will vary from person to person. I found mine extremely painful at first. The nerves in the surrounding area seem only too pleased to get caught up in the mess that’s going on down there. Add to that the trauma of having a hole inside you, and you have a pretty good idea how I was feeling.

I ain’t gonna lie: The first week or two were hell. I went from being a perfectly able-bodied, healthy, capable-of-anything 30-year-old to someone coming to terms with the fact they’re not going to be going about their usual routine for a while.

As I’ve posted before, I am into health and fitness in a big way. My weekly cardio routine used to consist of several runs, a number of bicycle rides to and from work and a swim or two depending on the tides. I’d also take on three sessions of resistance training a week.

For now, at least, I am relegated to an occasional swim and the odd walk round the block. Don’t get me wrong – there are far worse things human beings are going through around the planet – but the sudden change brought about by these limitations took its mental toll.

As the first month has progressed, I have come to terms with my injury. My trauma levels are way down compared with where they were. I have moved on from the initial feeling of regret over the incident that caused it: As one friend put it “all of us are unlucky with our exercise at some point”.

I am heading to the doctor’s next week to discuss with him what exercises I can do while I wait for my repair surgery. I’ll post an update soon.