• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Epididymitis

ChrisD

Senior Member
Messages
472
Location
East Sussex
About a month ago I started to randomly experience slight pain and stinging on my testicles, followed by waking up one day with a huge swelling on top of one of them that was approx. another half of a testicle size on top.

I saw an NHS GP who diagnosed it as epididymitis and prescribed a short 8 day course of Doxycycline, assuming that it was an infection of some kind. I used high dose Vitamin C for a few days and the swelling seemed to go down but it was still there, so I used the Doxy and it got mildly better over a week (Coincidentally my POTs seemed to get better too). But two weeks since the Abx it has been persistent in that there is slight swelling, stinging and aching - it also seems to be EMF triggered by appliances.

I have now been referred to a Urologist and am a little worried, so just wondering if this has happened to anyone else or if anyone can shed some light?

I have ME/CFS and also Lyme and co infections that includes some infection that could be loosely connected to causing this problem, also from my research I have found that HIV patients experience this as a consequence of immune suppression and being infected with the same coinfections that people with ME/Lyme are affected with i.e. CMV, Coxsackie etc.

It is interesting as a couple of NHS GPs have had me tested for both HIV and Syphillis based on my symptoms (Both negative).
 

ChrisD

Senior Member
Messages
472
Location
East Sussex
It may be varicocele too and if it's the left testicle, a narrowed left renal vein (Nutcracker Syndrome -NCS) can be the culprit.
Interestingly, NCS has been misdiagnosed as ME/CFS on occasion and it also causes POTS in about 20% of cases.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4294852/ Scrotal pain

Thanks Kangasue, It was actually the right hand one but this is very interesting and the POTS link in particular. On a facebook Lyme group someone suggested to me that it could be Mycoplasma Pneumoniae - apparently its becoming a more common symptom of that.
 

kangaSue

Senior Member
Messages
1,851
Location
Brisbane, Australia
@ChrisD it's only a left sided varicocele that can have a POTS link as far as I am aware. Having a right sided varicocele is actually quite rare and it can be associated with having a pancreatic tumour or having an annular pancreas sometimes too so best to be on the safe side and have the testicular vein checked out to make sure it's not obstructed.
 
Last edited: