Very worried.

[veryanxious]

Hello.

I was looking over my testes earlier on when I got out of the shower and I noticed that when I lifted my penis up, and looked down on my scrotum from above I could see a lump to the left hand side of the sctrotum, a little bit higher up than the testicle.

It appears to be its own little soft 'blob' or mass within the scrotum, and does not appear to be attached to my testicles, and is not hard. It feels like soft tissue, and is nowhere near as sensitive to the touch as my testes are, although after squeezing it gently it did not feel that comfortable afterwards.... A bit of a dull ache down there, but was not very sore or anything.

I am worried that what I have observed might be testicular cancer.


To provide a better description of what im looking at, when I look at my scrotum from above, (lifting my penis up to point towards the ceiling and looking down ontpo the top of my scrotum) it is not symetrical.
On one of the sides there is a lump above the testicle which is only visible when they are warm & droopy (a soft lump that is not attached to it). When cold and hard the lump cannot be seen.
On this side my left teste is slightly higher than that on the right hand side if that makes any difference.

The problem is that i'm not sure if i'm just being paranoid, because my grandma was just diagnosed with bowel cancer, and the guy who runs the local coffe shop I go to also just found out he had testicular cancer.... And i'm thinking I might just be me freaking out over that, and getting paranoid about things in my body that may have always been there but i just never noticed them. But I dont recall ever having noticed it until the last week or so. But then again, I don't know if i'd ever truly looked until last week when I found out my friend had testicular cancer.

Thankyou for any helpful replies.
I am 22 years old if that helps, and there is basically no history of cancer in my family. As far back as my great grandparents nobody in my family has had any form of cancer other than my nan the other week.

Also, i was reading on another website and it said that sometimes people mistake the epididymis for a suspicious lump. I don't know what the epididymus is, or what it should feel like, or be located. Can anybody help me with this?
Thanks again.

[Fish]

Hi:

What you are describing sounds like an epididymal cyst. Testicular tumors -TC - are attached to, or part of the testicle and are usually firm.

Check out http://tcrc.acor.org/tcexam.html for what to look for during a self-exam.

Most guys with testicular cancer don't have any family history. So, all abnormal lumps in the scrotum should be checked by a doctor, preferably a urologist.

Best wishes.

[veryanxious]

Fish,
Thanks very much for that link.
I am beginning to think that i might not have cancer.
I suppose its possible that it is a cyst..... although i was really hoping that it might just have been my imagination and it not be anything out of the ordinary at all.

Is a cyst a serious problem?

I'm still wondering that it might just be the epididymis..... the link you provided said it is a tube-like structure. This did not help me very much. I don't know what i'm looking for with that.

Any idea wat the cause of such an infection might be?
Thanks for your reply.

[veryanxious]

I think i will go and see my gp about this tomorrow.
I must say, i'm really not looking forward to the prospect of pulling my pants down and having a doctor handle my ..... but i've been freaking out for the last few days and the uncertainty is driving me insane.

I would hope that if it is an infection, a regular gp could be able to help me out?

[Fish]

Cysts are generally not serious, but do need to be checked out. The epididymis is a worm-like tube attached to the testicle; it transports the sperm from the testicle to the vas deferens; cysts often form in the epididymis.

Don't worry about the doctor checking out your "stuff", most doctors have seen thousands of penises and testicles, it's not a big deal to them. You should do fine with a GP.

[veryanxious]

Fish,
I went to the doctor today and he seemed to think it might have been a cyst too.
He ordered an ultrasound tho, and i am going for that on Friday.
I asked him if it was possible to get rid of cysts, and he said that it either goes away with time, or would require surgery to get it out.

I don't like it being there, but i don't want to have to be cut open to get it out.
Its been quite achy down there in the past few days, and im not sure if thats from me prodding it, or from the condition.
Whilst i know that i said it has been quite painless i should say that the thing that initially prompted me to check down there for lumps in the first place (a couple of weeks ago) was because i had a feeling that i'd been kicked in the nuts. You know the feeling, where it feels kinda like they'd gone up into your stomach and it aches.
I mentioned it to one of my friends and he reminded me that a couple weeks ago i jokingly said that i thought i might be having kidney failure (because the pain felt like it was coming from somewhere up in that region).
The thing i am most afraid about is that whatever it is, is something that would render me infertile.
I am only 22, but i have the perfect girlfriend and i cannot wait to settle down with her and have kids. The thought that that vision might be in jeopardy has been tormenting me for the past week.

[Welshboy82]

Varicocele

Veryanxious,

I think what you're describing is something called a varicocele (VA-REE-CO-SEAL), which is basically a varicose vein (like the ones you can get in your legs) in the vein leading to the left testicle. I have the same thing, and you don't have to worry - they're not a cause of infertility.

I started to notice an ache in my left testicle after using the treadmill in the gym, the pain would sometimes radiate down my leg and up into my abdomen, and it basically felt like I'd been bashed in the nuts. What happens is that the vein doesn't drain the blood properly, and so it swells up. This makes the vein feel like a mass of worms sitting on top of your left testicle. It also happens to be in the same place as the epididymus, and tangles up with it.

I went through a similar panic wondering if it was testicular cancer or not, but discovered that TC is a HARD lump actually ON your testicle, not above it and not soft either. Varicoceles are also much more common on the left than the right because of the way the vein sits and drains on the left side.

As for the lumps ABOVE your testes, there are glands on top of your testes which secrete hormones, and they're perfectly normal too.

In terms of treatment, you can get the varicose vein cut out if it really bothers you. But most doctors just tell you to wear tight fitting pants for support. As for me, I just avoid the treadmills at the gym - they were bad for my knees and boring anyway.


Hope the ultrasound goes ok!

[veryanxious]

Welshboy,
Thanks for your input. I certainly wouldn't mind too much if thats what it turns out to be.
However i've been getting more and more worried in the last 24 hours.
I went to the doctor yesterday and he asked me all these questions.....
chills? Difficulty passing urine? fever? etc, and i was answering no to all of them as that was the case at the time.
However when i got home from the doc's, later in the day i started to feel really ordinary, and started shivering, and feeling extremely lethargic. I checked my temperature and it was 39.5 degrees celsius. (thats pretty damn high as normal is around 36.5. And i found it hurted a bit when i went to pee, and although i could pee it felt like i could only get a little bit out at a time.

I'm fearing that what i have might now be an infection, and have been really worried about it. I have the ultrasound tomorrowe, but my doctor wouldnt be getting the results till monday and i'm really nervous that if i have an infection, leaving it go the whole weekend without any antibiotics will be damaging to me.

This has been the worst week of my life without doubt. Uni has been the busiest its ever been, but all i can think about is worrying about my testes. I've been in a state of panic now for 6 days straight.

I've booked in to see the doctor again tonight to tell him that my symptoms have changed.
I'm really worried that if its some kind of infection ,leaving it go untreated for this long will damage my fertility.
Thanks again guys. This forum has helped me alot this week.

[veryanxious]

Hi everybody.
Just thought i'd do a follow up after the fact.

I got my ultrasound back and was told there was nothing to worry about by my doctor.
The lump i noticed was "probably just a cyst" according to my doctor after looking at my ultrasound results.
One other thing i was told about i didnt even know was there was that i had something called "calcification of the testes". This meant that there were a few small bits down in there. Apparently this is when some part of the membrane layer from the tubes in which our testes travel at birth has slipped down into the scrotum and has become slightly calcified (i.e coated with calcium). Apparently this is nothing to worry about.
I guess it just goes to show that seeing a doctor is something you should DEFINITELY do WHENEVER you have a concern that something might be wrong down there. But i would also advise people to keep in mind that most of the times doctors see patients about these things it turns out that it is not anything serious.
So whilst i would strongly recomend seeing a physician about any problems, i would NOT advocate putting yourself through the emotional torture that i myself experienced.

[Karen]

The lump i noticed was "probably just a cyst" according to my doctor after looking at my ultrasound results.
One other thing i was told about i didnt even know was there was that i had something called "calcification of the testes".

veryanxious,
Did you see a urologist? Were the calcifications clustered? My unsolicited advice is to get another opinion on the scan. "Probably" a cyst isn't good enough. Calcifications, if clustered, can be indicative of a neoplasm.....one of those findings us women dread on mamograms. I don't want to scare you but if it were me (which it obviously can't be) I'd press a bit more.