How to examine yourself for testicular cancer

So, at what should you pay attention, while testing your testicles? First of all, the eggs should be roughly the same. If one of them is abnormally low, it is likely atrophied after a long-standing infection.

testicular_cancer_self_examinationOne testicle always hangs lower than the other. Otherwise you could not put the legs together. Inspect yourself every month, but only in a warm place – on a cold scrotum severely cringe. Perfectly to conduct inspections, while taking a bath or shower.

Set between the testicles and other large fingers. They must be felt as boiled egg (without shell, of course) about 3,5-4 cm in diameter, the size should not vary by more than 5-6 mm.

self_examination1Touching the back top of the testicle, you’ll find appendage testis – a thin funicle. If you can easily find it, you can just let it go – anything attached to appendage or free lying next to it, almost certainly benign (unfortunately, this can not be said about the entities associated with the testicle). Inside the appendage there is a tortuous duct, which connects the top of the testicle with a thick spermoduct.

If you find an unusual swelling, bumps or other abnormality, conduct a simple diagnostic test. Go to a dark room. Turn the pocket lamp and place it behind the scrotum. If the light easily passes through it, the tumor, most likely filled with liquid – a symptom typical of harmless hydropsy testicle cyst or seed funicle. But even in this case, you’d better visit the doctor.

self_examination2Very few of the testicles are malignant tumors, but doctors examine and treat any of them as cancer, before getting the lasts and right results. Fortunately, an experienced urologist or surgeon can confidently diagnose the majority of the benign entities immediately upon inspection at the hospital.

In doubtful cases, the doctor reveals the scrotum in order to make the more detailed examination of testicles. If doubts remain after that, the doctor may remove a suspicious testis and its spermoduct. In cases of suspected testis cancer, doctors do not biopsy because the chances of spread of malignant cells are very large.

self_examination3Although some patients complain of pain and a feeling of heaviness in the scrotum, almost all cases of testicles cancer begin with the appearance of painless tumors. The man conducting self examining, are unlikely to feel the other symptoms (back pain, cough, weight loss), because all they usually indicate nothing of the appearance of metastases.

So, you should turn to your doctor in case of tentative symptoms of testicular cancer:

• If you have found an increase of one of the testicles;

• Study is painful;

• If you feel papilla, which did not feel up to this;

• If you have a sense of «gravity» in the scrotum;

• When you are standing at the bottom of stomach pains in the inguinal area;

• If you notice blood in the urine;

• Increasing breast.

Tumors of testis may be benign and malignant. Remember, only the doctor has the right to putt diagnosis «testicle cancer». The regular monthly self examining and immediate access to a doctor in case of detection of one of these signs to prevent the development of malignant tumors, and in the case of early detection – to achieve a complete cure.