Mesh and Surgery Concerns

I absolutely agree with your pain management doctor. Multiple studies looking at chronic pain after open hernia repair with mesh show the incidence is highest among the young an among women. See below for links.

In my practice, for super thin women, I offer open tissue repair (no mesh). For thin women I also recommend laparoscopic repair with lightweight mesh. Open mesh repair, especially with normal heavyweight mesh runs a high risk of chronic mesh-related pain among women and I do not recommend it

Some links:
http://m.generalsurgerynews.com/Article.aspx?d=In+the+News&d_id=69&i=May+2012&i_id=837&a_id=20819

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12296903