A SIMPLE SURGERY CAN FIX THE PROBLEM BUT SOMETIMES THE HARDEST PART FOR WOMEN IS GETTING THE RIGHT DIAGNOSIS.

    WENDY KUSCHEL SHARES MORE.

    AUTHOR MARTINE EHRENCLOU WRITES ABOUT HOW PATIENTS CAN TAKE CHARGE OF THEIR HEALTH CARE.

    BUT RECENTLY, SHE HAD TO FOLLOW HER OWN ADVICE WHEN SHE BEGAN EXPERIENCING SEVERE ABDOMINAL PAIN.

"The pain felt like a red hot poker in my lower abdominals."

MARTINE SAW 12 DIFFERENT DOCTORS AND SPENT 10 MONTHS IN INTENSE PAIN, STILL NO ONE COULD TELL HER WHAT WAS WRONG. THEN SHE FOUND A DOCTOR WHO FINALLY GAVE HER AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS. 

Martine Ehrenclou

"She walked in and said this is what you have, and 'I can help you' and I cried!"

IT WAS A HERNIA!  MARTINE ACTUALLY HAD TWO. DOCTOR SHIRIN TOWFIGH (TOE-FYE) SAYS HERNIAS ARE OFTEN OVERLOOKED IN WOMEN.

Dr. Shirin Towfigh

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

"They tend to have the pain, but not the bulge."

A HERNIA HAPPENS WHEN PART OF AN INTERNAL ORGAN BULGES THROUGH A HOLE IN A MUSCLE-WHICH CAN ENTRAP ABDOMINAL FAT AND COMPRESS NERVES... CAUSING INTENSE PAIN. WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE INTERNAL HERNIAS. THE HARD PART: DIAGNOSING

Dr. Shirin Towfigh

"An exam alone is not 100%."

PAIN FROM HERNIAS MAY BE MISDIAGNOSED AS PELVIC PAIN FROM OVARIAN CYSTS, FIBROIDS, ENDOMETRIOSIS OR ADHESIONS. DOCTOR TOWFIGH SAYS A VAGINAL EXAM, AN M-R-I AND A COMPLETE PATIENT HISTORY ARE THE BEST WAYS TO SPOT ONE, AND FIXING A HERNIA IS SIMPLE. 

Dr. Shirin Towfigh

"The same way when we were kids and we had a hole in our jeans, and mom would put the patch, that's a simple way of describing our surgical way of fixing it."  (:10)

MARTINE HAD HERS FIXED AND CAN NOW FOCUS ON MAKING MUSIC WITH HER DAUGHTER-AND NOT HER PAIN.

Martine Ehrenclou

"I'm getting my life back."

NAT SOUND

(guitar)

    WOMEN ACCOUNT FOR ONLY EIGHT-PERCENT OF HERNIAS.