Chronic and Acute Pain after Bilateral Inguinal Hernia Repair

I had laproscopic hernia repair with mesh implant done about 20 years ago. Over the last ten years, pain in one or the other or both testicles began increasingly to disrupt my life. At first, I had no idea. My GP (I since switched) suggested it was a bacterial infection and gave me an antibiotic. No good. o went to a urologist who did say my problem was scar tissue and nerve involvement from the hernia repair. He prescribed Valium as a muscle relaxant and occasional Prednisone for flare -ups.. These helped for awhile, but did not cure. I finally did a search on the web and some reading on my own. There is a surgical solution that I found. I had it done and wow, it worked for me. I have only an occasional twinge, and nothing near the pain that had me doing nothing but lying on the sofa.

Do a web search for "Testicular pain after inguinal hernia repair: an approach to resection of the genital branch of genitofemoral nerve", then do another search for the first listed author's full name and you will see his web site listed in the results. As far as I can tell, there are not many if any other places to have the procedure done. Who I went to (the lead author of the article)is well-respected and the developer of the method. For me, it was a several hour drive for the initial consult, etc. It would have been worth flying across the USA for the relief I got. Really. My health insurance also realized this was NOT elective surgery but necessary in my case. Anyway, I figured I had little to lose. I did not want to become addicted to increasingly potent pain medications. I could not live with the unabated pain. There is a side effect that the good doctor will tell you about ... loss of sensation in a few square inches of the lower abdomen just above the groin. It just feels funny if I or my wife touches the area, but routinely, I am unaware of that numbness. Also, I have absolutely no loss of function of the functions the testicles etc are there to perform.