Experiences with hernia

I know of people that had this problem and during the prostatectomy, they also repaired the hernia. Not sure they will do that in your case, but you can ask.

Don’t know the extent, size of your hernia, small or medium or large. I had a small hernia going into surgery at 70 that I had left untreated for 13 years. I used it as my excuse to avoid heavy lifting. Two years after surgery it might be a little larger but still considered small so I am still leaving it be. Now should you do that with all hernias definitely not. The bigger they get the risks for strangulation increase and all the doctors due to even a small risk recommend surgery. I once mentioned my hernia to an unrelated matter physician and he acknowledged he had a small one he has left untreated. Definitely you need to know about your hernia’s specific’s and if you decide to leave untreated it will likely be against Doctors advice.

I good referral source for a surgeon to repair hernia’s though is your RARP surgeon. Often times they need to make a referral to a surgeon they are aware of that is good and familiar with scar tissue surgery from the prostatectomy in the area.

I developed an inguinal hernia after RARP. This paper (my RP surgeon is one of the authors) has the risk at 7.5%, which I would call greater than minimal https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8881255/ . The surgery to repair it was no big deal. It's pretty routine, one of the most common surgical procedures, so any decent general surgeon can do it.

Sorry, I think I phrased that poorly. I had my rarp 16 months ago and the hernia was probably caused by it. I meant to say that before the procedure, when asking about hernia risk, I was told not to worry.
My question is how others have dealt with this. From but I have researched thus far, hernia surgery can be more complex post-rarp due to the presence of scar tissue.

@optimistic Thanks, that is helpful.

@topf My hernia surgeon didn't think the scarring from the RARP would be a major problem and in practice it didn't turn out to be one. YMMV...I also asked about whether the mesh that is placed at the site of the hernia would interfere with radiation therapy, in case I had a recurrence of the cancer and he said it wouldn't. It's non-metallic, so that seems reasonable.

They repaired my inguinal hernia without my permission and now that area is swollen on front wall of abdominal area. Some days it is sore, MRI just says there is fluid build up. I knew I had the hernia since the late 80 or early 90s, never bother me and I lift lots of weights. My PCP and I agreed it was no big deal and it never got worse in the cough test.
But surgeon seen it during RP and put in mesh. Also besides the PCP if the surgeon look at his notes he would have seen 6 years earlier he said he could fix it and I declined.

@diverjer Thank you! Does the « repaired » hernia limit you in any way?

@optimistic Thanks again. Did you happen to ask if it might interfere with a later penile implant? 😬