Testicular self examination

Chris Steele: Hello! I am Dr. Chris Steele and thanks for visiting my website www.thefamilygp.com. This video is about how to examine your testicles to detect abnormal testicular lumps or possibly testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is a cancer that’s primarily a young man's disease; about 95% of the cases occurring between the ages of 19 to 35, so it's very important to know what is normal when you are feeling your testicles. Now, I have brought here with me, who is a volunteer and basically what you should do is ideally examine your testicles after you have a bath or a shower because the heat and the warmth of the bath or a shower causes the testicles to actually hang down lower. Now, when you look it in the mirror, you may find that your left testicle hangs lower than your right and that’s quite normal; there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

Now, the way to examine your testicles is first of all with the palm of your hand to actually feel balls of the testicles in your hand. Now, you may feel that one side feels heavier than the other; one side might feel larger than the other, that may not be abnormal, that could be just the way they are made, but if you check yourself, say once a week, you will get to know what your testicles feel like normally to you and if you are noticing any change in the weight or the size of the testicles that change should be reported to your doctor.

Now, in terms of feeling the testicles, they are very difficult to feel. Put your hands behind the scrotum, the fingers are behind the scrotum and with your thumb you actually just roll the testicle very gently between the thumb and the fingers and what you feel is the front of your testicle and the left and right side perfectly smooth, but round the back it's getting wiggly and lumpy and that’s the thing called epididymis which stores and transports seminal fluid. That lumpiness is nothing to worry about, but when you are feeling the testicle, the front and the side, if you find that it's not perfectly smooth and there is a lump, maybe like the size of a pea, it may be painless lump but firm that might be testicular cancer and that's something you must report to your doctor. The swelling around the back which is the epididymis that could just be a cyst an epididymal cyst and okay report it to your doctor but nothing to get too concerned about.

So, check you testicles regularly, get your partners to check them for you but get to know what they feel like and any change from the normal report to your GP because this cancer is if caught early, eminently curable. So, the final message is keep your eye on the ball, left one and the right one.


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