16 year old varicoele

[happymom675]

My son is having some trouble and I am getting really agervated with doctor's about it .. In 04 he had a really bad groin hernia repaired on the right side.. Now he has started having pain in his left side at first we went in and they sent us for a ultrasound and come back and said he has a cyst on his right side that is blocking sperm or something to that effect. Then they said on the left where he was hurting said he has varicoele and he is in so much pain it is not even funny they put him on hydro's 500mg every six to eight hours and then put him on antinflamitory which is not helping in the mean time they are making a appointment with a urelogist but, have not called yet I know I am probably a worried mom but, he is crying with this and trying to go to school...He never complains unless he is really hurting and I am worried it is something else that they missed ... How much should I be worrying and how painful is this should he be crying with it ... I know you can't tell me for sure but, just a thought from someone else would sure help thanks
happymom675

[Dr J Singh]

Hi,
Varicocele is a painful condition but the pain is usually dull aching type and not a severe one and thus will suggest you to encourage him not to worry much. An abdominal ultrasound should also be done to rule out any abdominal cause of the varicocele. Other causes of testicular pain like torsion of the testes also need to be ruled out as that can cause severe pain. Please do consult a urologist for the same. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care.

[Shirokuma]

Such things are as much pain as a young man can feel. From my experience passing out from the pain I cannot imagine what would be worse (I assume heart attacks are more painful) The point is that depending on the level of pain the meds will not touch it, and maybe only take the edge off.

The other problem is that although for recorded history men have mainly been the doctors they don't seem to have a good grasp of what is down there and how it fails. I had 4 operations and still did not really get a diagnosis other than orchialgia and I still have pain.

Urologists are surgeons, so they like to cut. Surgery is often their answer but I will say not always the best. Plus if they are not really skilled they screw things up worse than before.

Pain if from the nerves, nerves can be damaged really easily. I have nerve damage from the surgeries. This is why I can't suggest to men to go surgery as the first or even second step. Antibiotics are also something that the urologist is likely to prescribe and will likely want to wait 2 weeks for the effect. That is a long time to be in pain.