Ironman wrote:
Yes, it is psychosomatic. When I had a hernia, if it was even brought up, I thought I felt something. Mine was just bulging out of that little weak spot in the lower abdomen, it didn't go in my scrotum at all. If I was thinking about it, I would feel something there, but when I checked, there was nothing there that wasn't supposed to be there. I would imagine that happens to every man that gets one of those.
I had my hernia for years, it never gave me any trouble. Eventually you have to get it fixed though. My very experienced vascular surgeon was rather shocked by the size, one of the biggest he had seen. It was about this time last year I had it done. I got the double sided patch. That is what you need if it's at all big and you want to lift weights.
It will probably be years before you have to mess with it. Just keep lifting like normal. If and when it gets worse, just schedule a surgery. So the worst thing that's going to happen, is it gets a lot bigger and you have to schedule a surgery within the next few months or so. As long as it will push back in or it goes in on it's own when you lay down, you are fine. If it gets stuck, you have to go to the hospital for emergency surgery, but that's very unlikely even if it's utterly massive like mine was.
Thanks everyone, especially Ironman. My biggest fear was that I would not be able to train hard. I have a goal that one day I will be able to devote more time to. This made me fearful that my amateur bodybuilding dream would be just a dream. Thanks all!!