Does Robotic Umbilical Hernia Repair Affect Sexual Function In Males

An inguinal hernia (essentially a hernia in the groin area) is already plenty to deal with on its own. There's the hurting, of grade, simply so many patients add together to information technology the concern of whether their sexual functioning will exist affected by this condition or anything related to its treatment.

Sometimes, as a civilisation, we don't tend to treat sexual matters with the gravity that we should. We sometimes treat someone's focus on performance as a measure out of pride or vanity, when many people are simply concerned most whether they tin can share intimate experiences with a meaning love the way they could before the hernia repair.

This is a very normal and valid business concern to have, and 1 you should never feel ashamed to enquire any medical professional who is examining or addressing your inguinal hernia.

The fortunate news is that, in nearly cases, repairing an inguinal hernia should ameliorate—or at to the lowest degree not worsen—sexual enjoyment, because the bulge that was associated with the previous hernia is repaired and the abdominal wall is strengthened.

However, a pocket-sized percentage of patients who suffer from chronic hurting after inguinal hernia repair, due to entrapment of several other nerves that provide awareness to the skin around the genitals (but generally non the genitals themselves), may experience serious problems with pain during intimate contact.

Patients may withal have the desire for physical intimacy but, due to pain associated with touching the area around the genitals, the will apace diminishes. This can understandably lead to frustration, acrimony, bitterness, and despair.

Surgery to remove these nerves (the ilioinguinal nerve, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral fretfulness) that may be injured or stuck in scar tissue after a hernia repair should not worsen the ability to take sexual intimacy. The goal is to improve information technology by removing the source of the pain.

To discuss why, we will get-go look further at the inguinal hernia repair itself (as performed by other specialists), and then into the surgical procedure on the nerves we often perform if pain remains following the repair.

chronic nerve pain specialist

The Inguinal Hernia and Its Repair

According to Harvard Medical Schoolhouse, almost 1 in 4 men will develop an inguinal hernia at some point in their life. A case of an inguinal hernia in a woman is far from unheard of, merely the condition remains much more common in men.

While most cases present very minor or no symptoms whatsoever, and therefore rarely require action, well-nigh 1 in seven will have an inguinal hernia that is accounted in need of surgical repair.

In a study published by the International Journal of Urology, about 23 percent of a pool of 224 hernia patients (including 14 women) reported sexual dysfunction before the hernia repair process. After the procedure, 16 percent of patients reported like issues.

Of course, having any sort of discomfort in your groin surface area is bound to have a negative effect on sexual desire and performance. According to studies, common symptoms patients take described before or even afterward an inguinal hernia repair procedure include:

Pain in becoming erect.
Disability to achieve or maintain an erection.
Pain with orgasm.
Pain with physical body contact of the groin.

Pain before and after the surgical procedure tends to exist the principal cause of the sexual dysfunction, and not the condition or procedure itself causing any straight issue.

In rare cases, if there is a direct relation to the procedure, studies suggest information technology may accept to exercise with the implanted mesh affecting tissue within the area in some cases. However, further research on this matter has been suggested.

What About Surgery to Address Pain Following a Hernia Repair?

Pain in most patients with a hernia repair resolves with time and recovery. Once that pain subsides, the effects it has on sexual performance tend to fade likewise.

Only if you are reading this, odds are you or someone you know is all the same having pain after a hernia repair! Information technology is important to know that this does not necessarily mean the surgeon did something wrong.

Nevertheless, if it has been 6 months or more after a surgery and pain persists, there is the potential that a nerve has been negatively affected equally part of the procedure. It is possible that a nerve was cutting, scar tissue has developed around a nervus, or that a nerve has become caught within the mesh insert that was used to repair the hernia itself.

In such situations, Dr. Williams is oft consulted to address the outcome, and nosotros perform a thorough evaluation to determine whether a nervus is being affected and—if and so—where information technology is. This often involves the employ of a nervus block—an injection of coldhearted in the area of a nerve—to decide whether item nerves are currently irritated or damaged.

In a few cases, a nerve may need to be released from scar tissue. In many others, even so, a nervus or nerves may need to be removed to provide relief to the area. When this is washed, numbness volition occur in the area, although the size of this area of numbness shrinks over time in the bulk of situations.

But will this numbness have any effect on sexual pleasance or enjoyment? The answer is no, information technology should not in any way any. In fact, it will likely make things improve!

The nerves that may be causing chronic pain post-obit inguinal surgery are non the aforementioned as those that control sexual part and pleasure.

The fretfulness that are primarily responsible for sexual arousal (the pudendal fretfulness) are typically not nowadays in the surgical site of a hernia and are not the same equally those responsible for erection or arousal. A proper surgical procedure should not bear on those nerves in any way.

Surgery to remove the nerves responsible for the pain (the ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral nerves), would amend or—nether best circumstances—eliminate the pain that has made attempts at sex an ordeal to begin with.

In many cases, the same incision used for the initial repair tin can too be used over again, reducing the risks of cutting into new fretfulness.

Now, this does not eliminate the pocket-size possibility that another factor may be influencing performance. Such questions might be best relayed to your hernia specialist and/or the surgeon who performed the initial procedure. A consultation with a urologist or gynecologist may be in order as well.

Go Help for Chronic Post-Surgical Pain

While sexual enjoyment is indeed a valid concern, and so is hurting that becomes a daily impediment to your life. Nosotros can discuss both problems with you, and help you come to a decision on treatment that best fits your needs.

Call our function at (410) 709-3868 to schedule an appointment at our Baltimore area part. If you lot prefer to reach us electronically, please fill out our online contact form and a member of our staff will reach out to you during function hours.