Hernia surgery post prostatectomy

Seems to me there is no obviously correct answer to your question, "Should I repair my umbilical hernia now?" On the one hand you do not yet know when or even if you might need pelvic radiation. On the other, unless the hernia is impacting your life, e.g., pain, preventing activities you want to do, risking entrapment of bowel, there may be no reason to rush into surgery.

This is when a conversation with a neutral medical provider, your primary care/family practice doctor, might help you think through the question. Surgeons wanna cut, oncologists wanna treat/"cure" cancer. FPs *should* be concerned with the holistic you.

I had robotic Prostatechtomy in early 2017 & was fortunate enough that the scar tissue wasn't significant enough that my surgeon couldn't perform a double hernia repair. I will say, he commented it was more difficult than what my Urologist had told him it would be! Luckily I didn't have the abdominal procedure. Good luck my friend!

I have an inguinal hernia at the belly button after my robotic prostatectomy in September 2022. While my PSA has been < .01 for the first year I have now gone .04 being detectable and am going to my urologist next week. I understand that if the PSA keeps going up I will be headed to radiation, I had several positive margins during the surgery. I still have incontinence issues ( had some problems prior to surgery but am much worse with added stress incontinence). I am of the impression that my urologist was going to suggest an AUS but I am not sure I want surgery in the pelvic area because I have pudendal nerve hypersensitivity. I have had a nerve block which has helped the sitting pain that occurred after the prostatectomy but the penal and perinium pain which I had before surgery is still present causing urinary frequency and urge incontinence.
The question I have is should I be trying to get surgery prior to radiation or should I just wait and see?

I had a Prostatectomy in 2006. Since then I had 4 hernias. And sever bladder leakage leading me to get the male sling which slowed the leakage down. If I were to do it all over again ,with the advances in radiation, I think I would choose radiation treatments. Just my personal opinion. God Bless.

I believe I have settled on Prostatectomy for my cancer but after reading all of your stories, I am concerned that a hernia may be caused by the Protatectomy. Is this true? Nowhere in my research about Prostatectomy did it mention risk of a hernia.

I had a hernia develop about a year after my surgery. My doctor recommended an open cut surgery because of my scar tissue. The surgery went fine. However, I had a relapse in my bladder control. It took about three months before I was continent again. It’s now a year later and I’m 100% normal again — no discomfort or pain. In fact, I’m training for the London Marathon on April 21.

I had a Prostatectomy in 2006. Since then I’ve had 4 hernias and repairs.

Dr. Alisa Coker performed the hernia repair. I was back to doing pushups and running a few miles after 5 weeks. Of course the specifics of the hernia and the steps required to repair it vary from case to case as do individual's abilities to recover. You could recover faster or considerably more slowly.

I am two months out from a robotic inguinal hernia repair, one year after my robot assisted laparoscopic surgery prostatectomy. The urologist swears the RALP didn't cause it, but the hernia wasn't there before the prostate's removal. No matter the cause, I still needed it repaired. The hernia surgeon warned me there could be scar tissue that would make his repair take more time, and post-op he did say it was a struggle to get the mesh into the proper place because of those issues. But I am all healed and actually my stress incontinence improved as a result. I leak far less now when I am inactive around the house. Maybe the repair helped position my bladder better? No one knows for sure. One unusual note- I had a severe allergic reaction to the glue used to hold the incisions together. My stomach turned into a red oozing mess, painful and miserable to live with. Luckily prescription creams made it all better within a week.

@ssonkin, also wondering how long your total recovery was --i.e. back to full exercise and activities?