Risks if Umbilical Hernia Not Fixed?

You may want to try core strengthening exercises but sometimes any strain can make hernia worse.
There are three stages of a hernia:

Reducible: contents slide in and out of hernia. Pain comes and goes.
Incarcerated: contents get stuck in hernia and often cause constant ache
Strangulated: contents are constricted and blood supply is compromised causing tissue death and possible bowel rupture.

Because hernias may progress from 1 to 2 to 3, we repair them at an early stage. However, some hernias may never progress.

Thank you for your question regarding your umbilical hernia and the picture you attached. Yes, there are risks involved if you do not get your umbilical hernia fixed. An umbilical hernia is a small hole in the peritoneal wall. This allows a small piece of intestine or intestinal fat to leak through the hole. The problem is that a piece of fat, or small intestine can get trapped in this hole. If the fat or intestine gets trapped, it can become strangulated and even die. If a piece of small bowel dies, you can get extremely sick and can even die. I do not mean to scare you, but hernias should be fixed. Hernias like this should be fixed on an elective basis. I would suggest you get this fixed within the next six months while you are young and healthy. It is not a good idea to let these things go with time. In regards to training your belly button to go “in”, this is not possible. You cannot train your belly button to go in. I hope this answers your questions regarding an umbilical hernia. When considering an umbilical hernia, please seek an experienced, board-certified plastic surgeon who has performed hundreds of umbilical hernia repairs. If you have any more questions regarding umbilical hernias or plastic surgery, call my office.

Sincerely, Dr. Katzen

Hello! Umbilical hernias can be dangerous. If bowel slides into the hernia and get trapped, the result is death of the bowel, which can lead to severe illness. Since the hernia is straight forward to fix, I recommend having it repaired. There is no exercise that will make the hernia disappear on its own. Best wishes!Matthew C Camp M.D.

There is no exercise or anything you can do to help your belly button to go back in, other than to have the hernia fixed.Your hernia may not cause any problems now, but it may become an issue or even an emergency if left alone.The incision used can be very small and made around the lower or upper portion of the belly button.  In most cases there is not a need to place any mesh if the hernia is small enough.  If you wait and the hernia gets bigger over time, then a mesh would likely be required.Hope that helps.

Thank you for your pictures and questions. The only significant risk of this type of hernia is if the intestinal contents can herniate out into the defect and get stuck there, this can cause strangulation and is a surgical emergency. Luckily this is a fairly rare occurrence with a hernia like yours. You can always go see a surgeon in your area to discuss your options for elective repair. Good luck!

Your problem is very common, especially in women who have given birth.  The umbilical hernia results from a small hole in the fascia - the tough fibrous tissue that makes up your abdominal wall - in the area of the belly button.  A small piece of the underlying fat that exists within the abdominal cavity, overlying the intestines, protrudes through this hole.  In most cases, this does not create anything more than the protrusion visible in your photograph; in a few, however, this protruding tissue can become stuck ("incarcerated") within the hole, and its blood supply strangulated and cut off.  This results in a great deal of pain, and requires emergent surgery to correct.  In order to prevent such an occurrence, elective repair of the hernia is generally recommended.  Unfortunately, there are no exercises or non-operative treatments that can rectify this structural problem.

Umbilical hernias result from defects in the lining of the
abdominal wall.  When these defects
are of sufficient size the intra-abdominal contents can pass through them.  In some cases the abdominal contents
can get caught in this position and develops compromised blood supply.  This situation potentially represents a
life threatening condition.  For
this reason it’s generally recommended that umbilical hernias be repaired
before this type of complication can occur.

Unfortunately, there are no exercises or non-surgical
methods for correcting this problem. 
Correction of umbilical hernias always requires surgical intervention.

If you have an umbilical hernia, consultation with a surgeon
is appropriate.  This surgeon
should be able to make an appropriate recommendation.

There is the remote chance that some tissue could get trapped in your hernia which coulc create a medical condition.  This is very unlikely.
Fixing an umbilical hernia is simple in most cases and can be done with local anesthesia.
If you train your umbilicus to turn in, let me know.

An umbilical hernia can easily be repaired during a tummy tuck or without performing a tummy tuck. A hernia is when your intestines have pushed through a small weakness in your abs muscles. This is not usually a problem early on because the intestines can go in and out smoothly.
Eventually the intestines can get stuck outside causing changes in bowel movements, pain, infection, or other problems. Therefore, it should usually be corrected by your plastic surgeon.

Best of luck,
Dr. Karan Chopra
★★★★★
Minneapolis Plastic Surgeon
Face ⨀ Breast ⨀ Body Expert
Johns Hopkins Trained
Cosmetic Fellowship Trained



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Hi Terri,
The biggest risk of an untreated hernia is that contents pass through the wall, get stuck there and that their blood supply is cut off by being constricted at the neck of the hernia. This is most likely for hernias which are 'Goldilocks-sized' - that is, big enough for stuff to get into them, but small enough for the neck to cause a constriction. It's also most relevant for hernias of something important, like a loop of small bowel, rather than a bit of intra-abdominal fat.
Umbilical hernias such as yours are really common and almost always consist of intra-abdominal fat, making them of very little consequence. It's not impossible that they will cause a problem but quite unlikely, and in the UK we don't routinely recommend their repair with no ill-effect from the thousands of unrepaired umbilical hernias. On the other hand, it will definitely not get better spontaneously, so if you want your belly button to be restored to how it used to be then you would need to undergo surgical repair. Sometimes these hernias are obvious and at other times they are an incidental finding during tummy tuck, in which case I just repair them as part of the procedure.