Orchialgia Meaning, Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment

Orchialgia Meaning

Chronic orchialgia is defined as three months of intermittent or constant testicular discomfort that causes the patient significant distress. About 100,000 men in the US are diagnosed with it every year, and it's the reason for 2.5%-5% of all urological visits. This condition is known as idiopathic chronic orchialgia when it cannot be specifically attributed to a specific, identifiable cause.

Nearly all urologists in practice encounter chronic orchialgia at some point. Despite this, treating it remains difficult because of its frequent uncertain cause, patient discomfort from inadequate care.

Orchialgia Symptoms

Orchialgia is characterized by persistent or recurrent testicular pain that lasts for at least three months and considerably limits a patient's daily activities. The discomfort, which can be either subtle or intense, can be agonizing and severely restrict daily activities. Swelling, tenderness, and pain in the testicles are other possible side effects.

Orchialgia Causes

Orchialgia has the following primary and secondary causes:

Primary Causes

• Idiopathic disease (25–50% of cases). 
• Testicular pain lasts more than three months on average and causes severe disruption to the patient's everyday life.

Secondary Causes

• Infection
• Tumor
• Torsion of testicles
• Varicocele
• Hydrocele
• Spermatocele
• Trauma (for example, a bicycle accident) 
• Previous surgical operations

Orchialgia has a wide diagnostic differential, so a complete diagnostic evaluation is necessary to determine the root cause.

Orchialgia Diagnosis

There are numerous approaches to diagnosing Orchialgia. Orchialgia can be diagnosed using one of these major approaches:

Urine Test:

In this test the doctor determines whether or not the testicular discomfort is caused by an infection by analyzing the urine sample.

Scrotal Ultrasound:

This test is administered to men with orchialgia to measure blood flow. If the doctor observes reduced blood flow within the testicles, there is a possibility the patient is suffering from orchialgia. On the other hand, if the doctor observes normal blood flow, then the doctor prescribes many medications to alleviate the discomfort.

Orchialgia Treatment

The typical conservative treatment for chronic orchialgia includes ice, scrotal elevation, heat, antibiotics if there is evidence of infection, analgesics, anti-inflammatory agents, antidepressants (doxepin and amitriptyline appear to be more effective than others), regional and local nerve blocks, anticonvulsants, physical therapy, acupuncture, and psychotherapy for at least three months. The primary course of treatment for these patients should be conservative therapy. When traditional treatment doesn't work, surgery can be the next step.