The Etiology and Links Between Idiopathic Chronic Testicular Pain and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction: A Better Way to Diagnose and Treat

As a 21-year-old collegiate athlete, I was overcome with a sudden debilitating pain. Eight months of this pain and over a hundred doctors' appointments could not fix my problem. My issue was not uncommon, as it was due to chronic testicular pain. My experience was so terrible that I want to make sure what happened to me never happens to another person. It is unacceptable that fifty percent of chronic testicular pain cases are idiopathic. This is because conventional diagnostic and treatment protocols for men experiencing testicular pain are insufficient. Because the literature does not consider the body as a whole, testicular pain is diagnosed as idiopathic once trauma and torsion, tumors and cancer, infection, and sexually transmitted diseases are ruled out. This gap in the literature overlooks the links between biomechanical dysfunctions of the pelvic floor and testicular pain. Furthermore, recently proposed treatment algorithms do not consider the pelvic floor and are vague in their approach to treating and diagnosing testicular pain. If up to fifty percent of testicular pain cases are deemed to be idiopathic, then a more holistic approach must be utilized. This paper proposes a method to holistically evaluate patients with testicular pain and how to more efficiently diagnose the source of their pain. This paper will also coincide with my personal case study of idiopathic testicular pain.