We are talking inguinal hernias here.
The best way to visualise this problem is to think back to the bad old days when your mode of transport was a bike. Rmember when the tyre got so worn down that the inner tube came through?
Well that is what in effect happens with a hernia.
The muscles and tendons of the abdominal wall have given way to the pressure of the contents of the abdomen and they are now peeping through. There is of course still fatty tissue and skin overlying the contents. You can imagine if the hernia gets big enough that part of the bowel can slip through and become trapped.
When you get asked to cough (or blow on the back of your hand) you are making additional pressure in your abdominal cavity and if there is a hernia you can feel the bulge over the hernia ports (when present)
The reason why blokes are more prone to these is that we are born with a bit of a weaker area in the inguinal canal. Our testes get formed near the kidneys and during the latter stages of our foetal life migrate from there via your groin to the scrotum. The idea is that this canal heals up afterwards but this does not always happen.
In those unfortunate enough to have an ongoing weakness there it is a matter of exposure to the wrong sort of things (overweight/heavy lifting/persistent cough/bad luck) for this to open up and voila you have a hernia. This is called an indirect hernia. You'll understand from its origin that this flavour is less frequently found in females.
The other type is the direct or femoral hernia which is a weakness in the abdominal muscles/tendon which can make the earlier mentioned contents pop forwards. This is a less frequent variant and the sort which can strike both females and males.
There used to be umpteen repair methodes for hernias with varying successrates. More recently most get repaired laparoscopically (key-hole surgery) with some mesh (fancy gauze).
Other than the hernias mentioned here you can have a hiatus hernia; umbilical hernia; incisional hernia and a hernia in your back but they are all different things.
That's it for today.
FD