Written By: Muskan Gupta | Published : June 9, 2026 7:09 PM IST
Medically Verified By: Dr. Nidhi Khandelwal
Hernia (Image AI Generated)
We often meet people who say 'it's just a hernia', 'it's small, forget about it', 'it's not hurting, which means it's no big deal'. Hernia surgery is one of the most commonly performed surgeries all over the world, and it also happens to be one field of surgery where safe and effective techniques have evolved by leaps and bounds in the last decade or so. Despite this, we encounter patients who are either unwilling to undergo surgery or believe that surgery is unnecessary.
According to Dr. Nidhi Khandelwal, Leading Robotic & Laparoscopic Bariatric, Hernia & GI Surgeon, Mumbai, "A fact which people don't know is: A hernia never heals itself. A hernia is basically a defect in the muscles of your abdominal wall. It forms when your muscles have become weak, which can be due to a variety of reasons beyond your control. Once your muscles become so weak that a hernia forms, they can never repair themselves."
"Imagine a shirt that you have worn repeatedly for many years at some point, the cloth will give way and tear. The only solution is stitching the hole. And that's exactly what happens with a hernia, too. Till the defect is not stitched, no healing will happen," the doctor added.
So let's see some of the reasons why you should undergo surgery:
When a hernia is small, the swelling often comes and goes. The swelling is visible only on coughing, lifting, or straining, and disappears completely on lying down. But sometimes, the swelling becomes persistent. It doesn't go down unless the patient pushes it inside, or sometimes, despite pushing it doesn't go away. This is the point where we call a hernia 'irreducible', which means that without surgery, the chances of complications are very high.
Every hernia grows bigger and gets more complex with the passage of time. Most patients notice this as an increase in the size of the swelling. The bigger the hernia, or the more complex the hernia, the more difficult it is to repair. If the hernia is diagnosed early and repaired when it is still small, surgery will be much safer, and recovery will be faster.
In the early stages of a hernia, patients don't experience any pain, but as it keeps increasing, pain starts. It may be dragging in nature, which settles on lying down. But as more time passes, the pain becomes more constant and starts getting severe.
Many patients start rearranging their lives around the hernia without even realising it. They avoid standing or lifting, and even become dependent on others without realising it's the hernia that burdens them. If your routine activities, such as exercising or working, are getting affected or compromised, then it's time to get that hernia checked out - it might just be the root cause of your troubles.
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