2. Nausea: A Vexing Yet Revealing Symptom
Nausea isn’t usually the first symptom that pops into your mind when you think of obturator hernia. However, it serves as a sort of side-effect to the main event: abdominal pain. When a piece of tissue gets caught in that obturator foramen, your body might react by making you feel queasy. It’s less of a direct symptom and more of a collateral issue.
It’s different from your garden-variety nausea. Typically, there’s no real pattern to it. You can feel sick before or after meals, early in the morning or late at night. Basically, it’s as random as a weather forecast, making it a tricky symptom to pin down.
While it’s not the symptom you should hang your hat on, nausea can indeed complement the main symptom, lower abdominal pain. As such, if you experience nausea alongside that specific type of pain, it serves as an additional indicator that an obturator hernia could be the culprit.
Many people describe this nausea as coming in waves. You might be completely fine one moment and fighting the urge to vomit the next. This adds an extra layer of complexity to diagnosing obturator hernia, as it’s a symptom that also occurs with numerous other abdominal issues.
One striking thing about nausea in the context of an obturator hernia is that it often feels more intense than regular nausea. It’s like your stomach’s regular unease on steroids. You may not actually vomit, but the sensation of being on the verge is nearly constant when this symptom shows up. (2)
