QuestionYou are gynecologist, but I think you can answer my question. I suffered blunt testicular trauma. Diagnosis was: intratesticular hematoma, and my doctor (in our country we dont have experts from this medicine branch) said, you'll be OK. At the beginning i didn't care so much about it, but now few days later I'm a little bit concerned about this condition (especially testicular rupture, breaking of blood-testes barrier and immunologic response, etc.). So, intratesticular hematoma, what exactly it is? I was reading something about it, trying to become informed, and I find out some that now, makes me scared. I really want to know, is it possible that hematoma exists inside of testicle, inside of tunica albuginea in spite of fact that tunica albuginea is undameged, intact... Or, intratesticular hematomas are possible, just in cases of testicular ruptures, when we have rip, tear, rupture of tunica albuginea? I'm writing from Slovenia (Europe)
P.S. I hope you'll understand my questions, because my grammar is not the best in the world :)
THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE!
AnswerDear Drago,
Thank you for your question. Hematoma basically means a blood clot. It can occur at any level that there are blood vessels. So it can be just under the skin or deeper in the testicle. The basic treatment, as long as it is not continuing to expand, which indicates a continued bleed, is to let it heal on its own and apply heating pads to help the blood resorb. Eventually, it will heal and there should be no long term problems. If it is deeper in the testicle, as you've mentioned, then it can certainly have a effect on long term sperm production. However, since Men have two testicles, only one is required. Other than than, there should be no long term side effects. If the hematoma is large enough to block the blood supply to the testicle, because the blood comes in from only one place, then the testicle could suffer from a lack of blood leading to death of the testicle. In that case, the testicle is usually removed. Your doctors would know that right away.
I hope this answers your questions.
Sincerely,
Edward J. Ramirez, M.D.
Executive Medical Director
The Fertility and Gynecology Center
Monterey Bay IVF Program
www.montereybayivf.com
Monterey, California, U.S.A.
