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There is no perfect path, unfortunately. I didn’t feel comfortable with any of the options either, and waited until I practically had no choice but to have the surgery done. I don’t regret waiting, and I would have waited longer if it had been possible. The risk of trouble with this surgery is simply too high to do it unless you truly must in my opinion.
Once I had to pull the trigger on it, I picked based on a huge amount of research. I researched it in my spare time and talked to many surgeons for over a year once I knew watchful waiting wasn’t going to work for much longer.
Still, even after all that research, and making what seemed like a very solid choice, it hasn’t turned out great in my case so far, but I don’t know if it would have turned out better with another approach. My surgery would have been a lot easier with Lichtenstein than Shouldice, but who knows about complications beyond that.