Male gender, obesity, pregnancy, family history, smoke, chronic coughing, and straining to have a bowel movement are some of the risk factors of hernia.

Dr. Anthony Gonzalez, Medical Director of Bariatric Surgery at South Miami Hospital, says as the years progress and you get older, the tissues get weaker leading to the progression of hernia. “It will go from a small bellybutton hernia into a golf ball, and eventually an orange sized ball.”