Not sure if this is the right section or not but I thought I would share my experience undergoing a bilateral orchiectomy.

It all began approx. 14 years ago when i was trying out for football and went to get a physical and when getting checked the doctor told me something didn't feel right but i could still play and that i would most likely have problems later on in life and have to have whatever he was saying was out of place fixed. The only injury I remember sustaining prior to that was a kid in class that thought it was funny to kick other guys in the balls and run off. I still remember that little prick to this day. other than that I had one other injury from a bicycle when jumping a ramp and came off seat and landed on pole between seat and handle bars. That hurt i was in the bed sleeping with stomach pains and vomitting for 2 days after that one. Well, I ended up going off to college, getting married, having 2 kids, and then ended up in a divorce and moved to another state to be closer to family. I arrived to my new home and about 3 months later i started to notice pain and redness and slight swelling in my left testicle so I went to the doctor. I had testicular torsion. They fixed that and sent me on my way. The pain would come back periodically though regardless and over the last 2 years I had torsion 2 times and later found out i also had vericocle in my scrotum as well. I found a doctor who now that i look back things just didn't add up. I was recommended to have a unilateral orchiectomy to fix the issue after spending 1000's of dollars on co-pays and pain killers. I went for an ultrasound eventually and the doctor called me the next day to tell me I had a mass in my left testicle and a small spot on my right one. I was referred to another doctor for insurance purposes and i told the doctor to take em both so no more worries and wouldnt have to fork out anymore cash or wonder if I had cancer or something anymore since it does run strong in my family on the mens side for testicular and prostate. Doctor asked me if I was sure multiple times and I was sure I was ready. I was very hesitant in communicating with my wife about everything that was going on because I didn't want her to worry too. it was bad enough that i was worrying enough for both of us lol. well i am glad i did because i was so stressed out i forgot about banking sperm for just in case we want children in the future. We finished that up and I went in to the hospital and there the doctor confirmed with me that i wanted both removed and i confirmed again. Next thing you know I was asleep and had no idea what happened but woke up bandaged up with no testicles anymore. the pain was immediately gone and even after pain killers wore off i still feel good. i can walk without a limp now and would do it all over again possibly sooner if I knew it was going to give me this much freedom to do all the things i have wanted to do in the past and limits they were putting on my life. Well anyhow after the doc came to see me in the recovery room he stated he didn't see anything wrong with either of the testicles (actually said he did not see a tumor on my left testicle as the other doctor had told me. regardless something was making me hurt and whatever it was it is gone now. i am slightly curious to know what it was the other doctor seen and I would assume that something had to of been there for the dr. to pull my testicle out and if he didnt see anything wrong stitch me up and talk about it a little more but he went ahead and removed it i beleive due to the cords and the torsion and vericocle i had in my scrotum. It has been a few days now since I underwent the bilateral orchiectomy and i am feeling good. no pain down there and i have only had to take 3 pain pills so far. i do have a dull ache in my linguinal area kinda right below my stomach and right above my genital area. but im sure that is the cords where they were cut. Left the hospital and was amazed at how much better i felt and even more amazed that is has stayed that way. I have not chosen HRT yet due to wanting to get a full body scan checking for any abnormalities in my prostate so i can keep an eye on that. I would love some feedback on the testosterone replacement methods and difficulty level of applying. I would love to have something i can do at home without going to doctor. It has been 2 days and I am still getting random erections so not sure if that will go away or not but i hope they dont although i have spoken with a friend of mine who is a doctor who stated worse case scenario that viagra and/or cialus would work at getting it going anyhow. I feel relaxed. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. and the only advise i can give right now would probably be make sure you not only get a second opinion on things make sure you see the images for yourself.

triplecrush (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:13 am If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Do you feel less of a man without your balls?

Are you going to get prosthetic implants for your sack?

Does anyone besides the doctors know that you are now ball-less? Are you going to tell anyone?

How does your wife feel about this situation?

If it turns out the surgery was uneccessary, can you sue the doctor?

...

jockey_elance (imported) wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2011 5:31 am If it turns out the surgery was uneccessary, can you sue the doctor?

Sometimes, I find myself quite bewildered, puzzled, and even flummoxed.

Through what sort of achievable process could it ever turn out that the aforementioned surgery was unnecessary?

Suppose the surgery was not done and suppose, two years from now, one of the observed "testicular masses" had developed into terminal cancer? That would be one way to demonstrate that the surgery which was not done had been necessary, or so I would guess. However, the surgery having been done, there is no longer any way to learn for sure that terminal cancer would have developed within two years without the surgery.

The question of unnecessary surgery is thus, in my mind, rendered totally moot. Surgery done to prevent something that has yet to happen is always based on conjecture, speculation, and even wild guessing, and I am of the view that it never gets any better than that.

My family history informed me that I needed to get preventive surgeries to reduce my terminal-cancer-while-relatively-young risk to a level I personally deemed both tolerable and acceptable. The life pathway of my not getting a bilateral orchiectomy in 1986 identically vanished (and vanished forever?) with the orchiectomy. I have no possible way of forming the slightest clue as to how my life would be now (were I alive now) had I not gotten the orchiectomy and colectomy in 1986.

Bob Dylan wrote, if I remember correctly, something to the effect, "Whoever isn't busy being born is busy dying." For me, "being born" is equivalent to adding new life experiences to the aggregation of life experiences already collected. The moment I would begin to second-guess any of my past experiences, I find I would have decided to become busy dying.

For me, every new experience of my life is at least like a little birth of new experience. Moment by moment, as I adapt to the changing circumstances of my life, it is as though some aspect of my life is new-born. Such aspects, new in my life, are somewhat like being born anew, to the extent that my life pathway is changed by new experiences. Of this, experiencing a sense of newness as events in my life happen that never before happened, and of the experience of little (and sometimes not so little) life changes come my way which are analogous to forms of new birth of aspects of my life, some years ago, I wrote:

"...Second-guessing any newborn child makes the gift of life defiled..."

jockey_elance (imported) wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2011 5:31 am If it turns out the surgery was uneccessary, can you sue the doctor?

If it turn$ out the $urgery wa$ unecce$$ary, can you $ue the doctor?

There I fixed that for you Jockey_elance.

I swear, some people are always looking for a reason to sue.

--LT

To answer a few of your questions. In as little as a few weeks you will loose the spontaneous erections and after that it will be difficult to achieve an erection unless you used medication or start hrt. I used HRT for a while, didnt personally like the way it made me feel, but i would recommend the gel, its easy to use and you can self regualte the dosage by using a little more or less. I found that the full dose was way to much.

- I feel no less of a man.

- Prosthetic's I am not sure about because if my body rejects them then it cost extra to get them taken out and no refund on the "install" and as far as I can see it so far the wife has no issues with the appearance and since she is the only one seeing it then thats all im worried about.

- I guess the nurses that were in the room know, my doctor, and my wife. Not on my first list of things to do... Don't beleive it is anyones business.

- Wife has been very supportive

- Surgery was necessary. Multiple torsion incidents along with vericocile and extreme pain constantly just about

Thank you very much for that insight on the hormone replacement. Should I speak with my family doctor on this then? or urologist?

Either would be fine, i orginally went and saw a hormone specalist, (brain freeze on what they are called). Then I got a script from my urologist. But I havent taken it like over 6 months.

Dave

on hrt here

was on shots gave myself

on gel now

still have testicles they stopped making T years ago

little hard to find dose that works best

i get mine from compouding pharmacy that mixes it as it is cheaper that as i pay for my own drugs

as always mileage veries a lot

any questions i would be glad to help just ask

I would not speak to a urologist about your hormone issues. When I was castrated, I started with a urologist and found that to be a complete waste of time. A urologist is a body plumber... and well, you've taken care of the plumbing issue. What you'll need is a body chemistry specialist and for that you'll want to see an endocrinologist (endo). After you get the hormone issue straightened out with the endo, then you should be able to go back to your family doctor and see the endo once in a great while to make sure things are still going well. On this one you'll need a collaborative effort, but the one person I think you can take out of the equation is the urologist, unless down the road you start having some sort of plumbing issue related to your castration.

--LT