What you need to know about hernias

NEW YORK – Mr Kevin Saunders, 59, was in yoga class the first time he noticed the problem. “We were doing some sort of twisting pose, and I felt this very unusual sensation on the left side of my groin,” he said. It felt like a “squishy, gurgling sensation”, he added, almost as if there were “air bubbles in my groin”.

It was unpleasant but not painful, so he tried to ignore it. A few months later, however, he noticed a bulge had formed in the same area, about the size of a lima bean. He had it checked out and was diagnosed with a groin hernia, one of the most common medical conditions affecting men.