One for the guys........

[Dan21]

Hello.

I really need some advice/encouragement as I've been suffering some discomfort for about week and me HA has come right back after about a 12 month absence. I genuinely thought I was over the worst of my anxiety but I feel worse than ever. Please, please , please, I could really do with some positive words.

About a week ago I experienced a kind of itch around my prostate area. It was a little uncomfortable when I passed water but nothing burning or stinging to any great degree. I also had a noticable ache around my lower back which was causing me more discomfort. None of this I can describe as being actually painful, more uncomfortable. I went to the doctor and was tested for a water infection and chlamydia (I'm fairly sure it wont be any form of STD). Anyway, over the weekend the symptoms have not really got any better or any worse. Against all of my better judgement I Googled the symptoms and read about a condition called epididymitis which seems to give similar symptoms to those I've got.

But my fear is that I have undiagnosed testicular/prostate cancer or the lower back pain is something terrible wrong with my kidneys. On top of all this, my anxiety is making me feel sick and I'm now wondering whether or not this is another symptom of something terrible.

I really could do with some words of encouragement. I've just moved house last week and I'm completely knackered with everything. I should be enjoying this new time but I'm bordering on the completely miserable.

Thanks.

[blueangel]

Hi Dan

I'm not a chap, but I live with one. :) if you're under 50, then things wrong with your prostate are really rare. Have you checked yourself for lumps and bumps in your nether regions? As far as I know, testicular cancer pretty much always shows itself in this way, but the lumps tend not to be painful.

if you've just moved house, are you sure you've not strained your back in the process? This would certainly account for the back pain. I'm sure the sickness is down to anxiety, as this is one of the first things that happens to me when I get an attack of HA.

My suggestion is to hang on in there for a few days and see if things resolve themselves, then go back to your GP if you're still worried - and DON'T GOOGLE!!!

[pete82]

Hey mate,

I have been there a few times so think I know what you are going through. I frequently (although not for a year or so, fingers crossed) experienced a dull pain in my testicles which radiated to my lower back/kidney area. Sometimes it would get so bad that I couldn't walk very far without needing to stop for a couple of seconds. I don't mean to say it left me house bound or anything but it was definately uncomfortable.

I went to the doctors a number of times about it and endured all the STD tests etc which always came back negative. One thing that came up with pretty much every doctor I saw was... "are you overly stressed about anything? Anxiety can cause these kind of symptoms".

I have also been given anti-biotics before in case it is an infection which seem to work, although that could easily be a placebo effect.

Does that help? I realise they may not be the exact same symptoms but pain in the lower back is pretty frequent in anxiety/stress as far as I know (although obviously I am not a doctor!)

Cheers
Pete

[Dan21]

Thanks Pete and Blue.

Pete, funnily enough the back ache and aching between the legs has sort of become more predominant over the last few days. I went back to the doctors yesterday and she thought I might have thrush - prescribed me a one hit tablet to clear up any signs of it....but I'm not convinced it's that. She did put my mind at rest regards the fear of testicular cancer as there appears to be no physical signs of it and she said if there was anything wrong with my kidneys, it would have noticible in the urine tests (which came back clear).

I read that problems with kidneys are usually felt as sharp pains rather than dull aches, which, as you mentioned tend to be muscular. I do hope this is the case for me as I'm really very anxious about this whole situation.

My wife is almost at her wits end trying to convince me that there is nothing wrong with me - why can't I accept this, even after two doctors visits?

[pete82]

Hi Dan,

Yeah, my most severe case of this got worse before it got better as I worked myself up into such a state about it. Funnily enough my thought process was that I had missed testicular cancer symptoms and, as a result, it had spread to my kidneys, which sounds pretty similar to what you are thinking.

I have some experience of Kidney cancer (my father recently died after a long battle with it) and your symptoms with your age and the doctors comments make that sound unlikely in the extreme (i.e. it's not that). It was first noticed in a random urine test for my father so don't think that your doctor is just trying to fob you off, if there was something wrong with your kidneys it would be showing up in your urine.

I really think that if your doctor isn't worried than this is anxiety. If you're anything like me than you will probably be thinking that anxiety can't possibly cause these kind of physical symptoms but in my experience it genuinely can - in the darkest depths of an MS health anxiety 'binge' I was twitching and stuttering all over the place!

Out of interest, do you get much exercise in? I have just started running, boxing/mma practice and it really does help to get your mind off things and give you a natural buzz.

cheers
Pete

[Dan21]

Hello.

A further visit to the GP last week and I explained about my increasing health anxiety and could the discomfort that I was experiencing possibly be down to prostatitis? He said possibly, although he thought prostatitis wasn’t very common (contrary to my research) and has prescribed me a week’s course of amoxicillin antibiotics.

So three days into the antibiotics and the symptoms are still there – although prostate has quietened down some, testicles are aching like crazy as well as my lower back. The antibiotics are playing havoc with my digestion too.

I wondered if anyone has had any experience of - or knows anyone who may have had similar symptoms. My groin/lower back areas ache and I'm now in a complete panic that the doctors may have misread the symptoms and that this is some form of early onset lymphoma.

Please, please, I could do with some convincing that this isn't lymphoma as I'm going out of my mind with anxiety.

[pete82]

Hi Dan,

I really am not making this stuff up just to reassure you but that is basically word for word my experience. My worse instance of this I phoned my doc in a state about 3 days into a course of anti-biotics as I could barely walk around the house let alone outside. If it is an infection (for example of the tubes behind the testcles) anti biotics take time to kick in anyway.

As far as I know that doesn't sound like lymphoma at all, that is also a disease that is frequently obsessed about by those of us with health anxiety so you are not alone there! Give the anti biotics a bit longer and, most importantly, stay off google. I bet just avoiding the Internet for a couple of days would improve things drastically.

Cheers
pete