My Hydrocele Experience - 35 Year Old Male 20 Year Condition

I'm a 35 year Old Male that has had a hydrocele for 20 years. Its been a long road to get to the point where I'm at today but I thought I would write about my experience for those who are in position or struggling with this issue. If your reading this - great your on your way to peace of mind and contentment going forward. You do not have to accept your hydrocele and I hope me writing this gives you the confidence and courage you need to get it taken care of.

I'm writing this article as I sit at home in "recovery" after I finally had my surgery after what seems like a lifetime of thought, contemplation, resentment, shame, and unnecessary acceptance. For some background, I had two vericocele operations in my youth - the first when I was in about 4th grade and another when I was 15. I believe that these operations may have been what caused my hydrocele but too much time has passed and I will never know at this point.

As this issue came up during my youth it really had a negative effect on me. I was ashamed of my body, wouldn't ever do anything that required me to disrobe. Sports, locker room, women, you get it. I was intimidated at the prospect of being judged when someone saw my balls. Disclosure - my hydrocele was maybe a medium size one, when my balls were tight you could still tell one was larger but wayyyy different when in a "relaxed" state, left one much larger.

I, like may of you reading this, delt with re-positioning of my balls, adjusting alot and the behavior of them not being what they should be. I am an avid cyclist and also rode motorcycles for some time and these activities do not make it comfortable sitting for prolonged periods of time. I dealt with this all through my college years and beyond.

After a good friend of mine got me into gym type exercising in my mid 20s which I was never really doing. I had stayed physically active with my cycling but he got me going to more weight lifting and running. It was always odd when I was super sweaty but wouldn't take a shower there. After some time I finally got the courage to say f it, took my clothes off and showered there. Its a group shower so some people were sure to see me, but hey, I did it! I think this was a point in my life where I decided that I'd rather accept this condition rather than try to deal with the emotional and physical toll of trying to get it fixed.

At this acceptance point my life I generally felt pretty good and the hydrocele didn't bother me much anymore mentally. I got into running alot and even ran a half marathon sub 2 hours (1hr:59min) lol. My running generally did not have a negative effect on my hydrocele but did make it uncomfortable wearing spandex etc. Things do not position well as you guys know. Also during this time period (my early 30s) I met my first serious girlfriend which brings me to where I am at today.

My girlfriend and my desire to continue to exercise and maintain physical fitness into my older age brought me to start looking into formally addressing this issue. I thought if I am not physically comfortable (mentally I was) at 34 years old (35 now w/ surgery) how much longer do I want to deal with this? Do I want to be an old man who can't exercise or handle my business with my wife because I didn't get this taken care of when I was young? My girlfriend was nothing but encouraging, for one - she always accepted me for who I was and it didn't really even bother her! Wow what a revelation! She never pushed me to look into anything but was more of a springboard to bounce ideas and listen to me contemplate having the surgery.

I finally had a moment when I needed to start seriously looking into this in the beginning of 2021 when I started having some pain in my testicles. I don't know what caused it, exercise, or some passionate love making but I had a lot of pain down there. I ended up going into urgent care who couldn't do anything to help me, and they directed me to the ER at a hospital. They told me nothing was wrong - no twisted testicle or anything. They took an ultrasound of my testicle and sent that to a doctor for review who told me formally I had a hydrocele - a collection of fluid in my testicle. After this, all I ended up doing was resting and the pain resolved itself on its own. Was the hydrocele and the excess fluid making me more sensitive to normal activities? Who knows, but at this point I finally got the courage to start seriously looking into fixing my ball.

I made an appointment with an area urologist in my network. The appointment was quick - very quick probably less than 5 minutes! Since they had an ultrasound from my ER visit she already had everything she needed. I was told that I had a hydrocele and surgery to repair was an option.

I asked her some standard question you all probably had -

Will my testicle return to a "normal" size after?

Yes, but it will still be somewhat larger

Will I have a saggy sac?

No, it will return to a normal size

What pain level will be involved in surgery?

Minimal pain if none

Will I lose a testicle or become sterile (I have no kids yet).

Some risk but likely none

How long will I have to be off work?

Minimal one week

How long until I can have sex again?

4 weeks (ouch)

So after I processed this I finally worked up the courage to schedule this operation! I wanted to put the operation at the end of the year to minimize the amount of time it would appear I was gone (everyone has vacation, I have vacation etc). When the time came I had to tell my boss I was going to be out on medical for a week. Currently "working from home" into the 2nd week as I write this... Anyways, I did not go into specifics with my coworkers and you would be surprised how easy this actually was. I was someone concerned people were going to ask but all I said was its kind of personal and only told the people who need to know.

So the day came and surgery. I compared it to when I trained for my half marathon. The hard work was the months and months of running longer and longer distances, building your body up for the race day. Surgery day was the race day, the training was my years of dealing with this problem, and more recent year with ER visit, Dr visit and scheduling the surgery. The hard part was done it was time to run the race and get it over with! Show up, change into gown, get wheeled into an operating room, put under full anesthesia and just wake up. It really wasn't bad at all! I woke up to a shaved scrotal sac that was stitched up just below the equator and covered with skin glue. Couldn't even really see the cut. I had a pemrose drain put in under my left testicle that had to be in for a week.

The first two days after surgery were the worst ones. Pain level was little to none, really. I had some painkillers and took a few but probably didn't need to. Really it is more discomfort than anything. This is due to having to wear a jock strap with gauze in it to catch anything from the drain. Positioning this was not the easiest and moving around was not the best. I basically sat around for a week and changed this gauze pad as needed. Took a shower 2 days after surgery and managed this routine for a week. Drain came out and here I am, have to wear a jock strap for 4 weeks to keep everything tight.

As this is 2021 a few things that I learned about this procedure or any elective procedure to consider with the times being what they are - don't wait until the end of year. Too risky w/ insurance! Here is why - you have to show a negative COVID test 48 hours before your surgery. Basically if I somehow test positive (asymptomatic) they won't let you reschedule for 4 weeks which would have put me into the new year. All the money in ER and hospital / Dr visits toward my deductible would have been a waste and I would have to start all over again next year. I didn't test positive and my procedure went as scheduled but it is too risky especially if you have already met or are close to meeting your deductible since this surgery bills insurance around 20k (numbers are still coming in....). Deductable makes it lower dependign on the quality of your insurance I think my out of pocket is around 6k total. Make sure you have enough time in place to compensate for a positive COVID test God forbid....

So how do I end this? Don't let this hydrocele be a source of shame or make you put off things you want to do with your life! You DON'T have to accept it. That certainly is an option but its not the only one! If you think it is affecting your lifestyle physically or mentally, get it fixed! Don't do what I did and wait forever! Who knows what you could have done or what your quality of life would have been if you just fixed it! Get the courage and do it! Really, what do you have to lose?

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