Is one or both of your testicles feeling heavy, swollen and painful? The cause of these symptoms is inflammation and the health condition is medically referred to as orchitis.
The most common cause for an inflamed testicle is a virus or bacteria infection. Having post puberty mumps, tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia are frequent causes of orchitis. Although, a groin injury, chronic UTIs, prostate infection, epididymitis or catheter use are testicle inflammation associative causes as well.
Inflamed testicle symptoms usually involve pain, swelling and heaviness. And depending on the cause of your testicle inflammation, you may also experience some of these other symptoms:
- fever
- nausea
- dysuria
- headache
- groin pain
- bloody penis discharge
- painful intercourse, ejaculation
Some cases of orchitis lead to further health complications, for instance infertility, testicle atrophy, chronic epididymitis or scrotal abscess. Therefore, proper diagnosis and treatment via your health care provider is important to preserve your testicle function.
Treatment for orchitis caused by bacteria is antibiotics. There is no drug that directly treats the mumps virus, but taking an anti inflammatory and pain reliever can help relieve your testicular discomfort. Additional testicle treatment for the pain and inflammation is scrotum elevation (lie down) and application of ice packs to the groin area. Typically, orchitis lasts a week or two.
There are three prevention measures all adult males should take to avoid inflaming their testicles: safe sex, mumps vaccination and wear a protective cup during physical activities.
