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Femoral Hernia Treatment

When you have a painful or tender lump near your groin, it may be a femoral hernia. While femoral hernias are not the most common type of hernia, they’re serious. You'll need surgery, the only femoral hernia treatment that works.

At UVA Health, you'll find a team that can provide expert, specialized treatment to maximize your recovery.

Advanced Femoral Hernia Care Close to Home

At UVA Health, we can identify and treat your femoral hernia close to home. Our experienced surgeons can repair complex hernias and support you through diagnosis, surgery, and recovery.

You can access our hernia expertise in Charlottesville, Culpeper, and Northern Virginia.

What is a Femoral Hernia?

A femoral hernia happens when something inside your abdomen, like tissue or part of your intestines, pushes through a hole in your body near your upper thigh called the femoral canal. If the hernia is small, you may not be able to see it. If you can see the hernia, it will look like a small lump near your upper thigh, just below the groin.  

Femoral vs. Inguinal Hernias

Both femoral and inguinal hernias happen near the groin. An inguinal hernia happens higher up, closer to the lower belly. It’s more common in men. Femoral hernias happen lower down, near the top of the thigh. They happen more often in women.

Femoral Hernia Symptoms

You may not have any symptoms with a femoral hernia. If you do have symptoms, you might have:

  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Severe stomach pain
  • Sudden groin or thigh pain
  • Groin pain that gets worse when you stand, lift, or strain

Treating a Femoral Hernia

If you think you have a hernia, visit your primary care provider. They’ll do a physical exam to diagnose your condition. They might order a CT, MRI, or ultrasound scan to figure out what type of hernia you have.

Advanced Surgery for Femoral Hernias

Femoral hernias usually need surgery. At UVA Health, we have the ability to perform advanced procedures that help you heal faster than standard operations. With high-tech tools and robotic technologies, our surgeons can fix your hernia in a way that:

  • Leaves very small scars
  • Results in minimal pain
  • Helps you heal faster
  • Provides the best possible results

The main types of femoral hernia surgery include:

  • Open surgery: The surgeon makes a small cut near the hernia to push the bulge back inside. Then, they close the weak spot with stitches or a mesh patch.
  • Laparoscopic surgery involves a few tiny cuts and a camera to fix the hernia from the inside.
  • Robotic surgery uses 3 small incisions in the upper abdomen. Robotic surgery offers finer control of the instruments and better visualization that other methods.

Small hernias that don't hurt can wait for surgery. But femoral hernias don't go away on their own. That's why we recommend scheduling a procedure.

Emergency Surgery for Femoral Hernias

Sometimes, a femoral hernia can become an emergency. If part of your intestine gets stuck in the hernia and can’t go back inside, it becomes a strangulated hernia. A strangulated hernia is dangerous and needs surgery right away.

Signs of a strangulated hernia are:

  • Fever and rapid heart rate
  • Sudden, bad groin pain that gets worse
  • Vomiting or not being able to go to the bathroom
  • The lump turning red, purple, dark, or discolored

If you think you have a strangulated hernia, you'll need to get emergency care.

Why Did I Get a Femoral Hernia?

Femoral hernias are most common in women over age 50. They happen when there is too much pressure in the belly and when you have a weak spot in your muscle or tissue. Some things that can cause pressure or make your muscles or tissue weaker include:

  • Lifting heavy things
  • Coughing a lot
  • Constipation
  • Being pregnant and/or giving birth
  • Being overweight