# Testicular torsion? Ever heard of it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574 "2015-01-22T15:15:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/21 "2015-01-22T20:35:00Z")
Yep. A dude at my high school had it. He said it was quite unpleasant. Apparently it can happen to dogs, too. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/22 "2015-01-22T21:53:41Z")
I’ve heard of it too (I’m a 35 year old lady) and I’m also not sure why. I saw it on \*Venture \*but I’m pretty sure I’d heard of it before then. Probably heard about it here, this is where I hear all the things 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/23 "2015-01-22T22:12:42Z")
We work people up for this in my ER regularly, but rarely find it, I wouldn’t have called it common. ---
**Author:** ![LouLou7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/24 "2015-01-22T23:07:44Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I’ve heard of it, but I’m not sure why I know about it. Ovarian torsion is a new (and frightening!) one for me. A close female friend of mine rolled over in bed and suddenly had excrutiating pain in her abdomen/groin. Her husband rushed her to the ER, and they diagnosed her with an ovarian torsion. FROM ROLLING OVER IN BED!!!:eek: She was on strong pain pills until they could get her scheduled for surgery, which happened within a couple of days. …I think about that a lot when I’m laying in bed. I’m askeerd to roll over. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/25 "2015-01-22T23:08:58Z")
How could it even happen with ovaries? Isn’t the whole uterus in between them? ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/26 "2015-01-22T23:20:16Z")
Well it happened to me and I NEVER spoke about it at school, NEVER. I was 12yo so it was 1978 in a middle class Australian suburb. Can you imagine the shit I would have got from the local bullies? Oh and I have fathered children and have an excellent sex drive. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/27 "2015-01-22T23:22:41Z")
Think of an ovary as being a ball suspended by blood vessels and the ball twisting around. Less common than testicular torsion as they are more often more secured in place and less flapping around, but it happens. Did have one little girl with an ovary coming out an inguinal hernia … and had a good outcome. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/28 "2015-01-22T23:25:10Z")
The never talk about it bit is one reason why so few are saved. Many boys live with the pain (and it is pretty bad pain) rather than tell a parent that something is wrong … there. One kid had it swollen to grapefruit size and admitted to pain for over a week before he finally told his parents and was brought in. The testicle was not saved, surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/29 "2015-01-22T23:54:42Z")
Short story: had it, lost it. Misdiagnosis at the ER got me sent home with a painkiller and antibiotics, testicle “died” :eek:and became hard. Other doctors saw that, diagnosed testicular cancer and I went under the knife, woke up with one ball missing, an abdominal incision, an incision on my scrotum, news that I didn’t have cancer and that they had stitched the other ball in place so it wouldn’t twist. “Bellclapper’s syndrome” means you swing a little too freely down there and are prone to spontaneous torsion. Lost the medical malpractice suit, too. They did offer to put in a prosthetic made of teflon, but I thought, “iron balls or nothing.”🆒 ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/30 "2015-01-22T23:56:55Z")
A friend of mine was an emergency room doctor and told me about a young man who came in with pain in his testicles. Sure enough it was TT. While he was working around with the man’s hairy berries he thought he felt a lump and sent him on to an oncologist. It turned out to be testicular cancer so he lost the set. If it hadn’t been for the TT it would have probably been too late in a few more months. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/31 "2015-01-23T00:22:45Z")
Yep. Happened to my son. Saved the boys just in time. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/32 "2015-01-23T00:37:16Z")
I had ovarian torsion. Not fun. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/33 "2015-01-23T00:55:48Z")
Heard about it probably 25 years ago, probably read about it in a bodybuilding magazine. People probably don’t talk about it because they get laughed at. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/34 "2015-01-23T01:01:46Z")
Yep, happened to a friend of mine when we were teens…IIRC he went to the ER and a doctor manipulated it into place (without surgery). ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/35 "2015-01-23T01:16:40Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > The never talk about it bit is one reason why so few are saved. Many boys live with the pain (and it is pretty bad pain) rather than tell a parent that something is wrong … there. One kid had it swollen to grapefruit size and admitted to pain for over a week before he finally told his parents and was brought in. The testicle was not saved, surprise. Yep I waited about 3-4 days from memory, this is why I have talked to my son about it so he feels comfortable coming to me about anything. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/36 "2015-01-23T01:59:01Z")
I’ve heard of it. I’ve also heard that it could be very painful, that it could happen for pretty much no reason (i.e. no “need” for trauma, or a kick in the nuts or whatever) and that, yeah, absent very rapid medical help (though not necessary surgery) you can and will lose the affected organ. [QUOTE=Dseid] Did have one little girl with an ovary coming out an inguinal hernia … and had a good outcome. [/QUOTE] See, OP, this would be one cause for testicular torsion. My balls just violently retracted picturing this. ---
**Author:** ![dada2fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ccd318/32.png) [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/37 "2015-01-23T04:16:50Z")
My son was born with a penile torsion. He had surgery at 9 months old. Healed nicely. Now it’s 4 years later and everything looks and works normal. We as his parents didn’t tell people about it except for his grandparents. I doubt surgeries like this are casually talked about. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/38 "2015-01-23T04:27:23Z")
Happened to one of my uncles (I don’t know the details, my age having been in single digits at the time) and to one of my brothers (his balls are still both in their usual places). Both of them have also had inguinal hernias, independently of the torsion. My mother had ovarian torsion, combined with several large cysts all in the same ovary. The surgeons were going in for apendicitis, the appendix was healthy as can be, they rummaged around and called an obgyn. At the time there was no such thing as HRT and while the other ovary showed some cysts, they weren’t bad enough to remove it from a woman in her early 30s as that would have meant going from “you have apendicitis” to “you just underwent menopause 20 years early”. My brothers come from that second ovary. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/39 "2015-01-23T04:34:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How could it even happen with ovaries? Isn’t the whole uterus in between them? It’s not one ovary getting twisted around the other; it can be for example the fallopian tube on that side twisting upon itself. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574/40 "2015-01-23T04:44:15Z")
Some descriptions make it sound like one testicles blood supply and vas defrens are getting twisted around themselves, others like both testicles are getting twisted around each others. Or are both possible? I almost wonder why it doesn’t happen more during sex play, or does it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testicular-torsion-ever-heard-of-it/710574.md?page=3)