If there is sudden or severe pain in your scrotum, whether or not there is a lump, you need to have it seen immediately by your GP or in an emergency department. These symptoms can represent torsion (twisting) of the testicle and potentially if left for long enough the testicle can die from a lack of blood. Pain can also represent infection here so get it seen to straight away.

Most painless lumps in the scrotum are benign and are usually cysts, fluid around the testicle, vein swellings or even hernias. They are not actually a problem with the testicle but rather the structures around it. Many don’t need any treatment but don’t trust Dr Google here… see your real doctor for a diagnosis.

Rarely a lump in the scrotum can be a testicular cancer and it is for this reason a lump should not be ignored. It is not a common cancer overall with a lifetime risk of developing it being 1 in 200 approximately.

Mostly, it is a disease of young men with the peak age of diagnosis being in the early thirties but it can occur at any age after puberty. It is, however, the most common cancer in men aged between 15 and 35 years.

The good news is that survival rates are high with a 5-year survival rate at diagnosis being 98%.

It is good to have an awareness of what your scrotum and testicles feel like so you know when something has changed. The following webpage gives instructions on how to examine your scrotum.

https://andrologyaustralia.org/keeping-healthy/tse/

So if you have found something that’s not quite right in the tool-shed, get it checked out by the experts.