Hernia Symptoms

Hernia symptoms

        Hernia is, essentially, a sliding of a part of your abdominal cavity someplace it does not belong: if it is hiatal hernia, your esophagus and upper stomach penetrate the diaphragm and pass into the chest cavity; if we are talking about inguinal hernia, your small bowel slides through the inguinal canal. However, no matter what kind of hernia you suffer from, the hernia symptoms are pretty similar and quite difficult to confuse with those of other illnesses.

       Hernia symptoms have been studied for years, both by specialists and by sufferers. All of these people have compiled a list, complete with a detailed description of the most common hernia symptoms:

• The appearance of a bulge or swelling: you have to keep in mind that this bulge is a physical, "put your finger on it", kind of symptom. Being this obvious, it is also an immediate effect of your hernia. Theoretically, a hernia is a weakness, a malformation in your abdominal muscles that allows some parts of your abdomen, be them your upper stomach, your lower intestine or some fatty tissue pass through certain holes (or canals) that connect the abdominal cavity with the rest of your body. No matter where these abdominal components go to, they are unwelcomed. The body is perfectly proportioned to fit everything in its right place. Once a part of your bowel makes a surprise appearance next to your groin, it has no other way of going but up, pushing on your skin, since it is far more flexible than the walls of muscle around it. Thus, the bulge appears. Why does the bulge grow? Well, once the canal muscles are loosened, there is no going back. For a short period of time, your hernia will be a sliding one, meaning that once the stress factor that made your abdomen to push out some parts of itself is gone, order is restored. However, that does not last for long. Soon, every time you do any sort of intense physical activity, more of your stomach or your bowel will pass through the canal and the bulge will grow. Once your sliding hernia becomes incarcerated, the bulge cannot move back into your abdomen and the real problems begin.
• Pain: is a common and natural hernia symptom. Once the muscles are loosened, the margins of the canal are getting slowly, but surely, torn and inflamed. The nerve endings that have lodgings in these muscles send signals to your brain. It alerts you by letting you feel the pain. Keep in mind that the level of intensity of the pain differs from person to person and from type of hernia to type of hernia. There are several different types of pain that a hernia patient can experience:
• Localized pain: it tends to appear and disappear with the sliding of the hernia back and forth from your abdomen into your other cavities. It manifests itself, just like its name points out, at the specific place of the bulge, increasing if you apply pressure. This localized pain has been reported to be either "sharp and stinging" or "dull and throbbing", both sensations being accompanied by a "raw skin" feeling.
• Generalized pain: when your inguinal hernia becomes incarcerated, a part of your bowel is completely cut out from the blood supply. Without blood to function, the tissue starts to die and sends pain waves throughout your entire abdomen. This is called generalized pain. Be very careful, though, since it is easily mistaken for "colicky" pain. One thing that should tip you off is the fact that, unlike localized pain, this is one hernia symptom that will not go away with physical rest.
• Referred pain: when this troublesome illness manages to touch not only the muscle tissue right next to it, but even a nearby nerve that has nothing to do with the herniation, the pain becomes referred. That nerve ending sends a signal to the part of body that it belongs to and you feel the pain there, rather than at the place of the bulge. Therefore, men will notice some discomfort in their scrotum area and women in their labia. Both sexes can experience referred pain as far as the upper leg, hip area or upper back.
• Nausea and vomiting: due to the fact that, in any type of hernia, your digestive system is involved, nausea and vomiting are considered pretty standard hernia symptoms. For example, in inguinal hernia, part of your small intestine is trapped inside your groin area. This causes a very slow processing of the food you ingest, leading to a blockage of the intestines and to vomiting.
• Constipation: again, this is due to your small bowel not being able to function properly, thus causing your digested food a severe delay in its way to your colon.
• Urinary symptoms: if you suffer from inguinal hernia or femoral hernia, your bladder could become entrapped by a ring of muscles that should not be there. This causes hesitancy, frequency, urinary burning, frequent infections and bladder stones.

Other hernia symptoms

       Sometimes, certain patients develop a different, stranger set of symptoms that are not included in the classical hernia pathology. Keep in mind that these signs are common to other diseases out there:

• Impotence: the inability to develop or maintain an erection. This manifests itself when the patient suffers from inguinal hernia due to the fact that the bulge could press against the spermatic canal.
• Loss of ejaculatory function (in males) and dyspareunia (painful intercourse for females).
• Localized inflammation: the bulge develops a rougher, painful layer of skin on top of your normal upper epidermis.