[Jeff]

For as long as I can remember, I've always gotten random intense episodes of testicular pain on my right testicle. The pain begins acutely, and is usually severe enough to cause me to either keel over, or fall to the ground. However, the pain only lasts a second, if not less, which makes me believe that (thankfully) it isn't a brief torsion. I'm 20 years old, so I think if I were at risk for a torsion I would have had one by now (especially because I was very active in my teens), but I'm still confused as to the cause of the pain.

I've ignored it my whole life... simply because these random bouts of testicular pain only happen 3 or 4 times a year, but yesterday something very odd happened. Let me just give you a little background on myself before I go any further. My testicles are both normal. The right one is a little bigger than the left, and hangs down about an inch further than the left. The left one has a spermatocele on it, but as diagnosed by my urologist and physician, it's not anything to worry about. When I was 15 years old I got epididymitis I was put on anti-biotics (I cannot for the life of me remember what kind), and the infection went away, however the infection left me with a hydrocele. The hydrocele wasn't too big, it didn't hurt, nor did it cause any discomfort. It wasn't communicating either, so, at the request of my urologist I left it alone. It's been 5 years and the hydrocele never went away, nor did it ever change in size. But now back to the point of this email. As I was saying, yesterday I had one of those random sharp right-testicular pains. It hurt more than usual, and this time it ached briefly for 5 seconds or so after the sharp intense pain subsided (which was about 1 second after it began). Here's the interesting part: I felt my right testicle, and, to my surprise, the hydrocele had almost completely disappeared. Prior to the testicular pain, I had been doing nothing but sitting in a chair. The pain began when I got up and walked towards the door because I thought I heard someone knocking.

I'm somewhat worried, simply because I've had the hydrocele for 5 years, it's never changed in shape or size, and now, all of a sudden, it's almost gone. It's still there, but it feels as though there is significantly less fluid in it. On top of that, my testicle now feels much "looser" in my scrotum... almost like it's not as firmly attached to its spermatic cords. I don't know if this is actually the case, or if that's just how it feels because its movement is no longer restricted by a hydrocele, and I was used to how it felt with a large amount of fluid surrounding it. I'm hoping the latter.

Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before? Also, does the absence of the hydrocele increase mobility of my testicle in my scrotum and put me at risk for a torsion? (I'm quite paranoid about torsion because it happened to a friend of mine, though it's never happened to anyone in my family).

Thank you very much for any information you can give me. It is appreciated far more than you can imagine.

Sincerely,

Jeff.

[UroDoc]

Can't explain the pain but given your age and history a torsion would be highly unlikely. Good luck

[Jeff]

Any idea what happened to the hydrocele of 5 years? Is it possible that this entire thing is due to an infection or STD of some sort?

Thanks as always.

[UroDoc]

Unlikely infection or an STD would be silent this long, and they would not cause intermittent sharp pain. Hydroceles can become smaller or regress.