Intermittent testicular torsion in teen DS?

[BellissimoGecko]

NC for this to save DS's blushes.

DS (16) was playing footy at the weekend when he had a sudden pain in one testicle. He hobbled off the pitch and I took him to A&E.

The sore testicle was higher than the other and forward, and hard to touch. DS was examined in Urology and the doc didn’t think it was a torsion, based on lack of pain when examining, and the fact that his testicle had gone back to normal.

DS thinks it was an intermittent torsion, and he’s terrified to go back to footy or do any exercise (doc said to take a few days off and take it easy).

Does anyone have any experience of this, or advice?

The doc prescribed antibiotics for epididymis, just in case, but doesn’t think that DS has an infection.

What to do now? How likely is it that it will recur? Has anyone's H or DS had the operation to stitch the testes to hold them in place? Any pros or cons?

Thank you.

Both my teenage sons had testicle pain. The first son it came on suddenly and I brought him to a&e, the surgeon came to us immediately and said he had to operate straight away as he said it was a testicular torsion, it actually turned out to be a torsion of the appendix testis which is a twisting of an appendage that is located in the testicle. He was 13 at the time. My next ds then complained of an intermittent pain in his testicle so I brought him to gp who sent him to a&e, they said it wasn't a testicle torsion but did an ultrasound and it turned out to be a small varicose vein in the testicle. As it was small they suggested leaving it alone for now and just take pain relief. It hasn't really bothered him much since. Perhaps you could request an ultrasound to investigate?

The doc says that an ultrasound would not show whether it was a torsion or not - the only way to be sure was the operation.

My DS had a torsion last year. He had intermittent pain so it was 2 days before we saw a doctor and they whisked him through for the GP to a surgical consult in A&E. He was being prepped for an operation in 3 hours from seeing the GP. We were told it was likely that he would lose the testicle. I felt awful as we’d left it so long as he’d had similar pain in the past. Short story is that his testicle had twisted back and was fine so they didn’t have to remove it and shortened the cord on that testicle and the other one at the same time as it was long. He has been fine since but i do wonder if his previous pains had been his testicle twisting and then twisting back as he hasn’t had any since the operation.

@CraftyPiper - if your ds is in that much pain, take him to A&E immediately. If it is a torsion, he could lose the testicle.

I'd take him anyway, even if the pain has gone for now, as the doctors will be able to check him and see if it's a torsion or epididymis.

Ah, so they can shorten the cord too? Our doc says they would stitch the testicles to the inside of his scrotum so they can't move around.

How is your ds now? How long did he take to recover and get back to sport?

My eldest lad had some episodes of almost-TT when he was about 10yo. He only showed me after it had happened a few times, so I'm not sure how many times this happened in total. I explained why it was important to keep an eye on & he did see a consultant some months later (when all was 'normal').. Nothing seemed to cause it to happen each time. It didn't get bad enough for us to rush to A&E ever.

I am not asking how often it's happened since, but DS is now age mid 20s & never had treatment for it, just investigation. Consultants were happy with our strategy of vigilance and monitoring.

DS is fine now and it’s been just over a year. He has back in school in 5 days including a weekend, back in PE 2 weeks after that but contact sports including football after 4 weeks.