What causes hard testicles?

As an important male reproductive organ, the testicle has a very important function, but there are many diseases that can occur in the testicle. Sometimes we accidentally touch a lump in the testicle. Don't take it lightly at this time, because orchitis, spermatic cord disease and other testicular diseases can cause the testicle to become diseased and harden. It feels different from the physiological reaction of men when the testicle becomes hard. It feels like a lump. At this time, you must go to the hospital for examination to find out what disease causes the testicle to become hard.

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.

If you find that one of your testicles is enlarged and hard like a rock, you should highly suspect testicular cancer and need to have a tumor marker test: For example, if the blood alpha-fetoprotein level is elevated, it may indicate testicular embryonal carcinoma; an elevated AFP value indicates that the tumor is highly malignant and easy to metastasize. At the same time, you should also have B-ultrasound, CT and other imaging examinations to understand the nature of the mass, whether there is lymph node enlargement, metastasis, etc.

In fact, 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.

The cure rate for early stage testicular cancer is over 90%, but only 50% in late stage. Hardened testicles may be testicular cancer, so the best response is to find it in time, seek medical treatment in time, and increase the chance of cure.

Hardening of the testicles is a pathological change. If we find it, we must take it seriously, because testicular lesions may cause damage to our reproductive function and cause serious consequences. Serious testicular cancer may also occur. Therefore, we must go to the hospital as soon as possible to let the doctor make a diagnosis and strive to cure the disease as soon as possible so that life will be happier and more fulfilling.