Medical Questions » Hernia Questions » Question No. 510
| Question: | I have a hernia in my groin. It looks pretty ugly, but no-one ever sees it, and it causes me only slight discomfort. Why do these occur? |
| Answer: | When you were a foetus in your mother' s womb, the testicles were inside the abdomen. Just before birth, the testicles moved through the muscles and other tissue of the lower abdomen to sit in the scrotal sac.
Behind the testicles as they migrated to their new position, they left a canal through which the arteries, nerves, veins and sperm tube returned to the inside of the abdomen. In later years, due to heavy lifting, straining at stool, laxity of the muscles, obesity etc. this canal can open up, and allow some of the intestine inside the abdomen to slip down into the scrotal sac. This is an inguinal hernia.
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