Anyone with experience of testicular torsion?

[DaysofHoney]

Hello.

DS is 10. Has been in A&E twice already this month with severe testicle pain that has woken him in the night in tears. No torsion detected on ultrasound so sent on our way. Pain then subsides.

Yesterday evening he came to me asking if his balls looked normal. One testicle is decidedly higher and swollen, with the swelling extending up into his groin area.

He had no pain last night but is reporting stomach pain this morning (not uncommon, he has a lot of “stomach pain”).

He did report a fall in football yesterday but no pain at the time.

Im really stumped. I’ve got a GP appointment this morning but expect they might send me back to A&E. Could it be intermittent torsion? Is it coincidence?

Has anyone any experience of this? Lots of quite conflicting into online (eg. torsion is excruciating vs can be painless).

Any anecdotal experience would be much appreciated.

TIA

Did you get anywhere with GP? My son had a testicle torsion when he was 10 and another one, he is now an adult, a couple of years ago.

Very painful. One of mine had it but was a bit older. Was in agony with it. Took a few weeks to heal properly. How is your ds?

Has been seen again at A&E OP? From the description you gave it sounds like he needs to be seen urgently and not wait for the GP.

You can have a partial torsion, if it keeps happening they should still do a small operation to fix the testes in place to prevent a full torsion.

Thanks for the replies.

GP thinks it’s more likely an inguinal hernia, and we’ve been referred for another ultrasound. If any further pain I think we’ll head to a&e pronto!

In my hospital all testicular pain goes straight to theatre as an emergency. He could have an intermittent torsion. If you are anywhere near a children's hospital? Present there instead.

My son had this when he was 14.

He woke in the night and was vomiting in pain. We went to A&E and he had the surgical repair within a few hours.

I wouldn't bother with the GP and just go to A&E, it is classed as an emergency as the festival can die if blood supply is cut off.

Hospital took it very seriously a few weeks ago when he had significant pain in testicle but it wasn’t in torsion. Surgical team did ultrasound but they were happy it wasn’t torsion.

problem is it’s happened twice now and now he seems to have this swelling and bulging, worse at the end of the day, lower abdomen pain. Def looks more like hernia. Keeping very close eye on him today.

My son when he was 3 had a tortion of the appendix of the testicle. Was sore and had a blue spot on the testicle which is a common sign of this. Operated on the same day. Could it be this?

It could also be intermittent torsion. Testicles often sit one higher than the other but this sounds like there’s definitely an underline issue. Equally if it’s a hernia they can become strangulated. There’s a quick and easy way to check if his testicles reaction. If you run your nail up the inside of his legs the testicles should retracts upward and back down. The hospital showed us this when my son was having a lot of acute onset pain.