Hernias in women are not simply hernias in smaller men

Most of what is written about hernias, and most of the research behind it, comes from men, because men have most of the groin hernias. Women are a minority of hernia patients, and that has consequences. Their groin lumps are more often a femoral hernia, which is easily missed and more likely to trap bowel. Pregnancy stretches the abdominal wall in ways that can leave a hernia, a diastasis, or both. Caesarean sections and gynaecological operations leave scars that can later give way.

None of this is cause for alarm. Most hernias in women are straightforward to diagnose and to repair. But they deserve a surgeon who is looking for the right thing.

Where to start

Why a separate place for women

I first used the name HERnia in 2006, when I started a clinic for women with hernias at Fortis Hospital in Kolkata. I have since used it for the women's hernia sessions I run at international surgical meetings. The reasoning has not changed: women's hernias differ in where they occur, in what causes them, and in what matters to the woman who has one. A mother of young children, a woman planning another pregnancy, and a woman decades past childbearing each need a different conversation.

I am a male surgeon. Some women would prefer a female surgeon, and that is a perfectly reasonable choice. You are welcome to bring someone with you to any consultation, and an examination is only ever done with your consent.