What causes testicle hardening?

Hardened testicles are an abnormal condition that men can easily find when they clean their genitals. Normal men have two testicles that are evenly sized, smaller in hardness, and appear soft. Therefore, male patients should not take it lightly, because hardened testicles are likely caused by changes in the internal tissues of the testicles, and can also induce tumors and cancer, so men need to pay more attention to it.

If you feel your testicles are swollen and hard when you touch them, don't ignore it. The typical symptom of early testicular cancer is hard testicles on one side. As the disease progresses, 30% to 40% of patients will experience swelling or dull pain, and 10% of patients will experience severe pain due to bleeding, necrosis or acute epididymitis in the tumor. If it reaches the middle or late stage, there will also be symptoms of cancer metastasis such as coughing, hemoptysis, blurred vision, neck lumps, and back pain.

In summary, if you find that one side of the testicle is enlarged and hard as a rock, you should highly suspect the possibility of testicular cancer and need to check for tumor markers: if the blood alpha-fetoprotein is elevated, it may indicate testicular embryonal carcinoma; if the afp value is elevated, it indicates that the tumor is highly malignant and easy to metastasize. At the same time, B-ultrasound, CT and other imaging examinations should also be performed to understand the nature of the mass, whether there is lymph node enlargement, metastasis, etc.

Testicular cancer has many family members, mainly germ cell tumors and non-germ cell tumors. Germ cell tumors include seminoma, teratoma, embryonal carcinoma, and choriocarcinoma; non-germ cell tumors include gonadal stromal tumor, gonadal germ cell tumor, reticulotesticular adenoma, stromal tumor, carcinoid, and adrenal residual tumor. Among them, germ cell tumors account for more than 90% of testicular cancer.

After a man has a problem with hardened testicles, he may also experience scrotal moisture, abnormal penis development, etc. Therefore, patients need to regularly check their bodies, especially their reproductive systems, to detect any physical changes in a timely manner. They also need to pay attention to adjusting their diet and lifestyle habits, and try to reduce the frequency and number of penile erections and sexual intercourse.