What causes chronic testicular pain?
The reasons are not quite clear. One theory is that the sensory pain fibers running along the spermatic cord may for some reason have a very low stimulation threshold due to previous scrotal surgery (vasectomy), hernia surgery, kidney removal, scrotal or pelvic trauma and recurrent epididymal / testicular infections. This could be due to local irritation / inflammation along these nerve fibers. For this reason, we try conservative therapies initially since a number of patients have spontaneous resolution of the pain after a period of observation. This period may range from a few months to a few years. Our goal is to provide maximal comfort and relief for the patient from a quality of life standpoint with minimal risk – so if a patient has significant pain impacting their daily activities, more aggressive surgical intervention may be pursued at that point. This nerve hyper-stimulation can create extraordinary pain for the patient that is quite real, but cannot be defined as any structur
