Femoral hernias: facts and figures
It’s not at all uncommon for adults, especially women, to develop a femoral hernia during their lifetime. A femoral hernia occurs when there is a tear in the thin wall around the intestine and part of it ends up sticking out of the intestinal wall. This is a condition that’s not necessarily life threatening in our modern age, but left unchecked can lead to some particularly nasty complications. So if you feel that something is strange about your intestine, like there’s an obstruction or there is an unusual bump in your abdomen, it may be time to see your doctor.
There are four kinds of femoral hernias, and the distinction comes from their behavior and their position in the intestinal wall.
The more mild cases of femoral hernias are the reducible and irreducible kind. A reducible femoral hernia can be manually pushed back into its normal position. Although there’s no way you can heal it yourself by keeping it there long enough, at least you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing it’s not obstructing your bowels. This kind also rarely causes any significant pain. An irreducible femoral hernia cannot be put back into its place and will cause some pain or discomfort, while still not causing any sort of obstruction or changes to your regular intestinal operations.
The worst cases of femoral hernias are the obstructed and strangulated kind. And obstructed femoral hernia is entangled with the intestine and neither of them is able to return to its normal position. This causes a blockage of the intestine. A blockage of the intestine is also caused by the forth kind of femoral hernia, the strangulated type. A strangulated femoral hernia is very similar to an obstructed one, in the case that it doesn’t allow for regular intestinal functions. But it’s more severe because the blood flow to that part of the intestine is blocked and, as such, it requires emergency surgery. But the initial symptoms are similar to both conditions, and they consist of nausea, vomiting and medium to acute abdominal pain. Although uncomfortable, the vomiting is actually a way for the body to defend itself against further complications, as it throws away food that would otherwise be processed and sent to the intestine, only to worsen the blockage and the pain.
Keeping an eye out for disturbances in your daily bathroom visits as well as any lumps and bumps in your abdomen is really the only way you can prevent a more serious femoral hernia.
