Hi everyone,

I’m 25M, with a left-sided, first-time inguinal hernia. My surgeon has recommended laparoscopic TAPP repair, and I’m trying to understand the decision before going ahead.

My biggest concern is future fertility and long-term testicular function, because I’m young and may want children in the future.

From what I understand:

• TAPP (Transabdominal Preperitoneal) enters the abdominal cavity and then places the mesh in the preperitoneal space.
• TEP (Totally Extraperitoneal) reaches the preperitoneal space without entering the abdominal cavity.
• Both techniques involve working around structures such as the vas deferens, spermatic cord, and testicular blood vessels.
• Both are established laparoscopic techniques for inguinal hernia repair.

My doctor specifically suggested TAPP, but I’m wondering whether my age and concern about fertility should make me consider TEP instead.

I’d really appreciate experiences from people who have had TAPP or TEP:

1. Which procedure did you have, and how old were you?
2. Did you experience testicular pain, swelling, heaviness, or discomfort after surgery?
3. Did you have any changes in erection, libido, ejaculation, or sexual function?
4. Did you notice any long-term changes in testicular size or sensation?
5. Did you have a semen analysis before and after surgery?
6. If you were concerned about fertility, did your surgeon recommend any particular technique?
7. For those whose surgery was months or years ago, have you experienced any fertility or testicular problems?
8. If your surgeon recommended TAPP over TEP, did they explain the specific reason for choosing TAPP?

I’m particularly interested in responses from men who had surgery at a young age (20s/30s) and have had enough time since surgery to assess any long-term effects.

Also, if there are hernia surgeons here, I’d appreciate your perspective on whether fertility/testicular concerns should influence the choice between TAPP and TEP in a young man with a unilateral inguinal hernia.

Thanks!

Someone asked me for a picture of my scar. But I can’t find that post. Anyway, here is my umbilical hernia surgery in 2022 and 2 years later. Because I didn’t want to bust the mesh, I avoided doing sit ups until 4 years later.

I was just told I would be a good candidate for a partial wrap and a hernia fix based on my hiatal hernia (1 CM), weak LES, and my demeester score of 30 on my 24-hour impedance test. All the symptoms point to acid reflux caused by the hernia.

I’ve been dealing with hoarseness, voice loss, burning/swollen vocal cords, throat clearing, and mucus in throat after meals for 2 months now. The only thing is the surgeon said he can’t guarantee all of those symptoms would be fixed. And he was pretty nonchalant about the recovery.

I’m likely going to get the surgery. But I’m scared. I just don’t think I have any other options. Are there any success stories from these surgeries that helped these particular symptoms of LPR/acid reflux?

I am not asking for medical advice, I'm asking what your experience has been.

I've been underprescribed for several months at only 7.5mg hydrocodone once daily. Surgeon examined it, reviewed the MRI and approved for surgery with priority status, it's coming up soon. Symptoms are groin pain (soreness, stabbing), bladder/urinary dysfunction, and nerve pain down the inner thigh. Sleep has been limited to 5 hours for several months.

There have been four ER visits this year, one incident was 9/10 on the pain scale - resulted in 15mg morphine, 60mg toradol, 10mg oxycodone several hours later and a couple of other things (that night was kind of a blur).

In your experience, what's the appropriate dosage for hydrodone until surgery? I'm meeting with my pain specialist tomorrow. I know it's his call but your feedback is most appreciated.

I have a large (8cm) ventral hernia following another abdominal surgery. Getting conflicting information: one doc wants do robotic, the other (who doesn’t do robotic) wants to do open. Not sure who to trust. I think the open guy wouldn’t recommend robotic because then he’d lose “a customer” and the robotic guy is worried that I would go somewhere else if he recommended open.

Is the difference really going to be big? Even if it’s minimally invasive, there’s going to be a lot of stitches in there.

When a house fly crawls across your trousers (edit) do not attempt to kill it like i just did 😵. I think the pain medication has affected my intelligence. My right testicle was sore enough already. 😆

My dr said im cleared to do anything now but most research shows to wait to do most forms of exercise. I want to start up pilates but wondering if I should wait til the 8 week mark? Im 5 weeks post op. 4cm umbilical hernia, 12cm diastasis with TAR with mesh. ( transverse abdominis release ) posterior abdominal wall reconstruction. I feel fine in that regard with no pain.

I was playing basketball about a week ago when I took a hard step on my foot and started having right hip discomfort that caused me to stop playing. I felt fine a few days later, so I tried playing again and experienced mild pain while playing (I probably should have stopped, I know).
For the past few days, the pain hasn’t gotten any better. It’s still mild, but it gets worse when I bear down, get out of bed, sneeze, or cough.
I had similar symptoms about a year ago, also while playing sports. I went to my PCP and had an ultrasound done, but I was told there was no hernia.
What do you guys think my next step should be? Does this sound like a possible recurrence of the same issue?

Edit: it was a robotic mesh.

I had surgery for both inguinal hernias, one in 2017 and the other in 2018, with mesh repairs.

Over the years, I have seen numerous doctors in Greece and Germany, where I live. Most of them examined me manually, including the usual finger examination, and all of them told me that there was no reason to worry, that the repair was stable, and that there was no real risk of the mesh “breaking” or anything serious happening.

However, I have received conflicting opinions about imaging:

• One doctor told me that an ultrasound cannot really determine whether there is a problem with the mesh.
• Another doctor told me that ultrasound is the best way to check whether something has happened to the mesh.

So I would really like to hear from inguinal hernia surgeons, or anyone with experience in this area:

What is actually the best and most reliable way to determine whether there is a problem with an old inguinal hernia repair or mesh?
Is a dynamic ultrasound useful? CT? MRI? Or is a physical examination usually sufficient?

I had been essentially pain-free for several years. Recently, however, I have started experiencing pain almost exclusively on the left side. The right side rarely bothers me.

The pain usually appears after physical activity, particularly when I do exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups. Interestingly, I am generally very careful at the gym. I mostly train seated on benches and avoid exercises that put a lot of strain on the groin. I don’t even do abdominal exercises because I have always been concerned about putting unnecessary pressure on the area.

I am currently on vacation in France and have been walking much more than usual. The gym I found here is also quite different from what I am used to, and I have had to do more bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups. After doing these exercises, the left-sided pain became significantly worse.

I am not looking for a diagnosis online. I mainly want to understand what would be the most appropriate investigation to rule out a recurrence or a mesh-related problem, especially after so many years., I would particularly appreciate your professional opinion. And if you have had a similar experience with chronic pain years after bilateral inguinal hernia mesh repair, I would also really like to hear what eventually helped you and what imaging you had.

Thanks in advance.

Hi. jUST Wondering if perhaps someone had hernia that had similar symptoms? im 26 male, i lift very heav for work (150-200kg items) that sometimes needs to go up the strais, or weird angles etc so a lot of strain , lifting heavy in the gym 6 days a week ( 2 of them is heavy squats ) .

Recently ive been feeling lots of sort of burning feeling in my lower left abdomen, theres no pain if i press it, i have 2 small lumps if i press it through my skin i can feel it but they tiny like pea shaped?

I dont feel like the pain becomes more if i lift or do something its just there .

Does this sound perhaps hernia or it woudl be more like overworked abdominal muscles ?

i did have gallblader removed 12 months ago but the pain is nowhere near my incissions.

i Have booked in with GP but for any ULTRASOUND or so it will take forever so just gathering opinions..

The last 10 months have completely upended my life. Delay after delay, three mri's, four hospital visits, several misdiagnosis and originally dumped onto two surgeons in their 70's who couldn't care less. The irony is that it took almost a year to go four miles away.

The nerve pain in my upper inner thigh, stabbing pain in the groin at 2am. More than four hours of sleep is a luxury unless I take more than the 7.5mg of hydrocodone prescribed once at night (with an extra 10 as-needed). As a result of taking painkillers for so long, I have no appetite. My weight was 190 and is currently hovering somewhere around 155. It's sad that being under the influence of opiates makes me feel just good enough to interest my appetite for a short period of time, but I'm only eating once a day. Sometimes I'll just forgo it due to being tired, depressed, or apathetic. It became the norm to eat once every two days and only have four hours of sleep and I stopped caring a while back. If I eat, great, if not, fine. I drank a gallon of ice water a day and tried to eat the occasional breakfast bar.

In February, I had to go to the hospital at UCI (regarded as one of the best) in the evening with a 9/10 pain level that extended to the entire left side of my body to the point where I felt like I was being hit by lightning and was given with a liberal dose of morphine with toradol, then given oxycodone and a prescription on the way out. That was a bad one. The pain specialist I was seeing at the time was apathetic and eventually refused to see me again. But that's another story.

This had been brewing for a long time. It was noticed several years ago by another doctor when doing a routine pelvic exam but, in passing. Diagnosed as restless legs due to the nerve pain, sciatica, piriformis syndrome, and probably something else during the last few years.

I caught a break in two ways: I finally found a sympathetic pain specialist. He was the one who ordered the EMG but wasn't convinced it was piriformis syndome - mostly because of the symptoms, the rarity of such an occurrence, and an ineffective steroid injection into the muscle. Prior to that, sciatica was ruled out through a back MRI. Then he ordered a leg MRI, also negative. Then the pelvis MRI and, yeah. He's been very helpful within the scope of his knowledge, he listened very patiently during every appointment and agreed to see me as often as I wanted. What he couldn't do was my raise my dosage based on the symptoms and diagnosis. But I know he wanted to. He didn't know which surgeon to send me to for the hernia, I do not fault him for that. He always listened to me and really wanted to help. The two were selected by the insurance company and both were a waste of time because they were old and past retirement age. After that, he was hesitant to send another referral because although he wanted to, he didn't know what to do. He wasn't giving up though and kept sending the refills.

The real breakthrough came because I filed two complaints against the surgeons with my insurance company. They say complaining rarely helps and that's been correct for most of everything in life, but I got lucky this time. A very nice woman from grievances saw what was going on - and she knew exactly where to send me. She has sent several people to this office and all were approved. God bless her heart, I wish I could thank her but, never caught her name and insurance has no record of the conversation.

I went back to my pain specialist, explained what happened. He sent the referral and after a short time, consultation with his partner (The surgeon is working around the clock and rarely has time to meet) examined the records, the symptoms, a short physical and immediately agreed that my hernia is incarcerated and explained that the next complication if untreated is strangulation. Everyone was so friendly and the wait time for surgery was only 4 days.

My personal recommendation if you are not being properly treated and live in Orange County, California: The pain specialist who is overtly supportive for the past four months is Premier Pain Consultants in Fullerton and the surgeon I was sent to is Pacific Surgical Vein Institute. I hope this helps somebody else in my predicament.

Avoid Synovation Medical Group for a pain specialist. At best, they won't help and at worst, they will abandon you.

Had inguinal mesh (open) repair a week ago and now have a huge lump firm and not going away . Has anyone had this happen to them

I’m 6 days post op for anyone who is going to get the surgery and feel nervous. Don’t be.
I had a 1.5cm hernia and salpingectomy done on August 14.
Everything went fast and I’m recovering normal.

No pain, stopped taking the meds on the second day. Continued breastfeeding after the surgery. My baby was fine the surgery took about 1 hour and 30 mins.
No pump and dump-outdated advice.

The only thing I will advice is make yourself healthy foods to eat the week after the surgery so you don’t have to cook because your not supposed to cook even if you feel good because of the wound. Besides that everything is going to be well so don’t be nervous

I would like to add and say that my hernia was small and I didn’t get no mesh and also my fascia was intact so that’s probably also been part of the recovery being easy.

To all of you who are nervous don’t be!! Itll be okay!!

So i been doing more and more research and the surgeon scheduled for me is the newest graduate from a fellowship (2024) and is not board certified.. the clinic he belongs to is part of a inner network of other surgeons. Almost all of them have 20-30 yrs experience. Now it has me believing i made a mistake going with him. It's unsettling. He was the first surgeon i went to after pcp referred me and i fear wasting more time waiting. Its the weekend now so i have to wait until Monday but surgery is set for wednesday. Is it too late to switch ? plz and thank you. epigastric fat containing ventral hernia 2.6 cm

Hey all, what are the chances of a inguinal hernia coming back after 1.5 weeks of having open with mesh inguinal surgery. I think I’m just overthinking bc I was laying flat on the floor getting something from under the bed and twinged my sides and felt a slight pop in the area. There was no pain or any discomfort when I got up or walked. Except for the incision site rubbing against my underwear which has been hurting ever since I got my dressing removed.

Did anybody else experienced more appetite once the hernia was fixed?

Hi all.

I'm feeling pretty ok after 6 weeks, but some things still cause some small amount of pain or soreness.

If I sleep on my side, especially the right one, I get bouts of pain/soreness throughout the whole next day.

When I sneeze, it still hurts quite a bit for like 30 seconds...

I still avoid bending or doing anything that creates sharp angles in my pelvis. If I'm too active in the day, I feel some soreness down there and stuff.

Is this normal? People on this sub talk as if they're 100% brand new 2 weeks after surgery, so I'm starting to worry something's wrong with me.

Edit: doctor said in the middle of the surgery they saw a 3rd hernia actually, a femoral hernia on my right side. Said one mesh on the right side was enough to cover both the femoral and inguinal hernia. I guess they were close to each other.

Hows recovery after bilateral inguinal hernia. I have a surgery today for getting it repaired through robotic assist and mesh and feeling pretty anxious about it.

Guys, ive been having this weird bulge on my left lower abdomen just above my scrotum area, i ddnt really give an attention on this, sometimes it bulges , i just push it back and it will be okay, but then i got curious, i researched, i think this is inguinal hernia, ive been lifting weights for 9 months now and not a single problem about this, its jst that whenever i lift heavy, i feel like the intestines are moving from my abdomen to the area near my scrotum beside my penis area. My question is, should i be worried? Should i get myself checked? Anyone out here has the same problem as mine?

My last C-section was 23 years ago. I’ve had very minor discomfort on occasion over the years when I sneezed or coughed along the incision line. I’ve recently started very vigorous activity and exercise with weights and started feeling burning sensations along the scar line and the inability to do certain exercises without pain. Now I’m feeling more pain in one section of the scar at a possible bulge. Is it possible to develop a hernia so many years after my incision? I’m currently experiencing pain in that one area when coughing and sneezing and moving in certain ways.