Painful scrotum and groin with occasional testicular retraction on right side

[rbm117]

Hi everyone,

I've been suffering from an odd injury for the past few months which is becoming very frustrating and significantly reducing my quality of life.

I believe it's related to an injury, although I'm not sure. If someone has experienced anything similar I would be extremely grateful if they could describe how they overcame it.

It all started about three months ago when I began feeling a slight ache (maybe a 3/10 in terms of pain) in my scrotum above my right testicle, it was there more or less constantly. I was diagnosed with epididymitis and treated with antibiotics for about 1 month. The antibiotics didn't help at all, and there was never any sign of infection in the many urine tests I had. At this point I underwent a scrotal ultrasound which revealed slightly increased blood flow to the right testicle but nothing out of the ordinary.

The next theory after epididymitis was a kidney stone causing referred pain to the scrotum. I underwent a CT scan which came back negative.

I then had one particularly painful episode where my testicle retraced quite significantly (although not actually into the groin, it could still be felt in my abdomen) and became quite swollen. I went to emergency care (A and E here in the UK) where they told me I most probably had suffered an episode of intermittent torsion, caused by my testicle retracting. The only other theory was a particularly nasty infection that had flared up, although this seems unlikely.

While all this has been happening I've also been experiencing intermittent pain around my lower back, hip and inner thigh, all on the right hand side. I've also noticed that there are many tender points around my lower abdomen and groin on my right hand side that don't appear on the left. These points feel as if they are bruised, and hurt when I push them with a finger.

Anyway, as I mentioned I now think all of this could be related to an injury. About two weeks before I began experiencing the testicular pain I had a nasty fall off my bicycle. I went into a curb sideways and went over the handlebars landing on my left shoulder, However as I landed the saddle struck (very hard) my right lower abdomen (inguinal region). It was quite painful at the time, and felt very week as if I could not move my right leg to push the peddles, so walked the rest of my journey.

The area was painful for a few days, but then everything seemed fine.

I've only just realised that the area where I have all these strange tender points that hurt when pressed on is more or less the exact area that the saddle on my bike struck me.

Furthermore, when I look down my stomach, my right lower abdomen is noticeably more 'sucked in' that the left side. I've never noticed this before and could have always had this without noticing, but it does seem strange. I also have occasional swelling in the inguinal region (although hernia has been ruled out) It seems as if the muscle leading down to my scrotum becomes very tense, and perhaps this is what is causing my testicles to retract and the pain in my scrotum.

Could there be a connection here? And if so what is likely to be the cause of my continued pain? Could I have injured tendons/muscles/ligaments?

I'm really desperate for answers now, Doctors and Urologists have no idea what's wrong with me, and it's only now I'm exploring the muscular/skeletal route.

Sorry for the long post and thank you for your time.

Ben

[rbm117]

Thanks so much for the reply.

I've seen the psoas muscle/hip adductors mentioned on various forums, but it doesn't seem people ever mention how they overcame their problem.

Perhaps thats just because they never want to think about pain near their testciles ever again (understandable)

A muscular cause definitely seems possible. I've become aware that I also have quite bad posture which could also contribute to any consequences of my injury.

May I ask if you've ever experienced something like this before?

I will look into the physical therapy route.

Thanks again for your reply

[Caryopteris]

Google psoas muscles, groin and back pain.  There are articles that state it is a frequently overlooked diagnosis that responds to correct physical therapy / exercises.  Also consider taking magnesium supplements or Epsom salt baths to get relief.  We all tend to be deficient in magnesium and vitamin D, and supplementing these can give significant relief from pain.