Doctor's Advice - Have I lost my testicle?

Q. Doc, something terrible has happened. I am a guy of 19. I have always been a good athlete and kept myself in great shape. My sex life is good. But yesterday I was checking out my sex equipment, and I got a real bad shock. I could only find one testicle. I checked again later, and it was true. There used to be two, Doc. I am in no doubt about that. I know I only have one. So what has happened? Has one of them kind of dissolved away? Or is it some sort of cancer?

A. No, it isn't. There is only one explanation, and it is this. Your testicle must have gone up into the little 'canal' or tunnel which runs up from the scrotum into the belly. That is quite common. It is possible that the testicle might 'come down' again of its own accord. But I am doubtful whether it will. We must assume that it is 'stuck' up in that little tunnel.

Unfortunately, that is not a good situation. A testicle which is jammed up in this area is real vulnerable to injury. It can also become diseased; and it is unlikely to be producing good sperms.

Therefore, I urge you to see a doctor right away, and to ask him to send you to a surgeon-specialist who deals with this area of the male body. The surgeon will be able to carry out a little operation to bring the testicle back down into the scrotum. And after that, everything will be OK. Your sex life will be OK too.  Please do not delay. This is urgent.

Q. Doctor, I am a virgin. But last night I had some real 'heavy petting' with a boy. And to be quite honest with you, he got real close to my vagina. The reason why I am fretting is that when he discharged, the fluid went onto the top of my thigh and the lower right-hand side of my belly. Now I am pretty frightened. My bestfriend says that a girl can get pregnant this way. Is that true, doctor?

A. Such a thing can happen. It is just possible for a sperm which has been deposited on a woman's skin to find its way into the vagina, and then to climb up into her womb, and finally reach an ovum (egg). Medically, this is known as fecundation ab extra.

However, such occurrences are very, very rare. I can only recall seeing one or two such cases in the whole of my professional life. So I think you can assume that it is most unlikely that you are pregnant. Now you must wait and see if your menses arrive. But I am sure they will. Please take great care during the new year! I hope that you will continue to maintain your virginity. Try not to let any boys get near that area of your body.

Q. Doc, I have had sex with around 10 girls in the course of my life. I am now 20. A friend who is a student of science has suggested that all this sex may have given me that very bad virus that can cause cancer. Is this possible? And how could I get a blood test for the virus?

A. Most sexually active people do acquire that virus at some stage in their lives. It is called Human Papilloma Virus, or HPV. Fortunately, most of the time it does no harm. But in females, it may cause cancer of the cervix. And in some circumstances it may be responsible for cancer of the throat or of the anus, many years later.

A young man like yourself, who has been with quite a few girls, will probably have picked up the virus at some time. But the immune system of your body may well have destroyed it. So the chances of it giving you cancer are real low. Unfortunately, there is no blood test for HPV. So there is absolutely no way of telling whether you have it or not. However, in order to cut down transmission of this virus, and indeed other infections, I would strongly recommend that you use condoms in all future sexual encounters.

Q. I have been engaged to my fiancé for nearly a year, and we are due to get married in the spring. But thanks to a tip-off from a friend, I have just discovered that he has been cheating on me for the last six months! When I told him that I knew all about it and that I was mad at him, he just laughed. He said that the relationship with the other girl 'didn't mean anything', and that it was me he loved. Can I believe him, Doc? And could he have given me any infection, picked up from this other woman?

A. When men have been caught in this way, they frequently say things like 'Oh, the other lady didn't mean anything to me'. It is a useful male excuse! But I ask you to consider whether it is likely that this guy will be faithful to you after you are married. If he has been cheating regularly while you have been engaged, isn't it probable that he will do the same thing when he is your husband?

Frankly, I think you should consider calling this marriage off. And from a medical point of view, there has to be quite a chance that he has picked some sexually transmitted infection from that other young woman - and deposited it inside you. Chlamydia infection would be the likeliest. Therefore, I am certain that you should go and have a vaginal check-up right away, to make sure that he has not given you anything. If he has, then the doctor can give you an appropriate course of antibiotics.

Q. Doc, I am 21-year-old male. I continue to experience 'wet dreams'. I am worried that something is wrong with me. Could it be a hormone imbalance? Shouldn't the dreams have stopped by now?

A. You really should cease fretting. As I have mentioned in this column before, wet dreams (medically known as nocturnal emissions) are normal in young men, particularly if they are highly sexed. In a way, they are really the equivalent of a woman's menses. Just as the female body has to produce eggs (ova), so the male body has to produce sperms.

The dreams generally tend to get less and less frequent during a man's 20s and 30s, but some exceptionally virile men still have them when they are 50 or 60. There is no question of a hormone imbalance. So the best thing you can do it is to quit worrying.

Q. I am female age 19. Sometimes when I have spent the evening kissing and cuddling with a boy, I feel a very slight pain in the lower part of my belly, on the right side and on the left. Is this natural, Doc? It goes away after a couple of hours.

A. This is perfectly OK. It is just due to congestion in the pelvic area, caused from sexual excitement.

Email questions to Doc at saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com and read more in the Outlook Magazine tomorrow.