I have had digestion problems the last 5-6 years, consisting mainly of bloated stomach and constipation. At first it wasn’t much of a problem and I thought it would go away on its own. After about 6 months it had gotten worse and started to weigh me down bodily and mentally. At present it’s practically ruining my life. Always being a fairly sensitive person with a complicated childhood, these complications have made me a nervous wreck with anxiety and fear of social activity.

So far doctor’s advice has not helped, neither has any medication I’ve been suggested, both psychiatric drugs and laxatives/stool softeners etc. and the given diagnosis was Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Exercise has not helped med either, usually I even feel worse after taking a swim or a run.

Then only a few months ago I discovered, on my own, that I might have an inguinal hernia. I was excited and went to my local doctor who examined me and agreed that it was inguinal hernia on my right side. He then made arrangements for a pre-operation consultation, which I was at yesterday.

At the consultation my hopes of getting better were shattered though, as the surgeon I meet told me it was not Inguinal Hernia and that my local doctor had misjudged his examination.

The surgeon I saw told me that what looked like Inguinal Hernia, was simply my entire abdonmial wall being expressed at the right side of my lower abdomen. His argument for this was that im skinny and that the condition was entirely normal. But im not especially skinny and years ago, when my weight was even greater, I still had the same problems and the sack/bulge was there as well (even though I did not understand the possible relation to hernia until years later, with more then one doctor examining my abdomen and not discovering the sack/bulge either).

My condition apparently looked like a Inguinal Hernia enough for my local doctor to appoint me an operation, so I am quite confused. Also after discovering the possible relation between Inguinal Hernia and my sack/bulge I have had great luck in emptying out my intestines better by putting pressure and controlling the area that protudes so that it doesn’t look “unsual” and stays in place. The fact that stool softeners/laxtatives and
exercise only makes my problem worse also relates more to a Inguinal Hernia then Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Can anyone relate to this? Are Inguinal Hernias often mistaked for a harmless condition like this surgeon told me? I really hope he was just trying to push me off as he also said that Inguinal Hernia operations can very often give the patient follow up problems like extreme pain in the abdomen, which I havn’t read anywhere at all. My local doctor did not mention anything similar either and simply said that the operation was completely routine and usually never had any complications, neither at the operation itself or following.

(Btw. I live in the country of Denmark.)