DON'T IGNORE TESTICULAR SWELLINGS

Testicular swellings have been a cause of major concern amongst men.The one serious disorder that affects the testicles is testicular cancer.The testicular swelling more often turns out to be some benign disorder rather than carcinoma prostate. 

The testicular cancer  often presents with apparently innocuous lump in testis.The patient may have a feeling of heaviness and discomfort.The other uncommon symptoms can be lower back pain, fever, cough etc because of the metastases.As the testicular cancers have excellent prognosis with 5 year survival rate of 95% ( reaching to 100% in cases of testis confined malignancy); it is essential to run awareness programmes about examine the testicle  for any mass.However innocuous it may appear but all the testicular swelling should be reported to the urologist.

With the advent of information technology, most people do get first hand information about testicular cancer from the net and correlate any swelling in the scrotum to testicular cancer.We often see patients coming to us in a very panicky state thinking that they are harbouring testicular malignancy.Most of the times they point out to normal anatomical structures like epididymis thinking that its a mass.so teaching testicular anatomy ina simple language and teaching the simple way of testicular self examnination especially for young people is need of the time.

The heath care professionals and urologists can run camps in software companies /BPO/industries emphasising these points.

 

ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE TESTIS:

The testicles are part of the male reproductive system. They produce sperm and testosterone (male sex hormone). The testicles sit inside a loose sac of skin known as the scrotum, which hangs down behind the penis.

The average testicular size is 18 cm 3( can vary from 12-30 cm 3).While the size of the testicle varies, it is estimated that 21.9% of men have their higher testicle being their left, while 27.3% of men have reported to have equally positioned testicles.Many people come to us with the complaints of unequally placed testicles.this can a normal anatomical aberration of the body. 

The testicles are ovoid in shape and are overalpped in its superior aspect by a coiled structure - epididymis (which transports and stores the sperms).The epididymis further continues as vas.

Testicular self examination:

Its better to do testicular self examination after the doctor explains the patient the normal anatomy of the testis and the epididymis.
The self examination should be done after a warm bath for the cremaster to relax.The loose scrotal skin allows precise examination of the scrotal contents.
The two hands should be used : thumbs for grasping the superior aspect of the hemiscrotal contents and the index fingers for the inferior aspect of the testis.
It is better to examine when the patient is infront of a mirror.
THE TESTIS HAS A WEIRD SENSATION ON PRESSING...OFTEN THE LOSS OF THIS PECULIAR SENSATION  IS A SIGNAL THAT THE TESTIS MAY HARBOUR A MALIGNANCY